Evolution of Evil
by Zim'sMostLoyalServant
Summary: Book 2 of the Destiny Trilogy. After the destruction of his EMP Cannon, Zim decides to stop waiting for the Armada and create his own army – an army of genetically engineered monsters. Longer summery inside. Contains Zim/Jana. COMPLETE
1. Prologue

**A/N: Here we go folks, the prologue of "Evolution of Evil". I can promise you two things about this story: there will be plenty of action later on, and there will be development of the Zim/Jana romance from the previous story. Though I feel I should warn you now, I'm really not that good at writing romance, so I'm not sure how well it'll turn out.**

**That said, read on!**

**Summery: After the destruction of his EMP Cannon, Zim decides to stop waiting for the Armada and to create his own army – an army of genetically engineered monsters. But after a lab accident, he unlocks an even greater weapon within his own DNA. As Zim evolves into the ultimate warrior, does Dib stand a chance?**

**Disclaimer: Jana belongs to me. Everything else is the property of Jhonen Vasquez.**

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** Evolution of Evil**

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_The High Skool, The Day After The Destruction Of The EMP Cannon_

Dib was fairly sure that everyone was staring at him as he trudged down the hall. It would be hard for them not to, what with the large scar running from his jaw line up to just past his brow. He could hear the other students discussing him in whispers they thought he couldn't hear; the terms "nut" and "emo" seemed to be the most popular.

'Thanks a lot, Jana,' Dib thought, 'As if they didn't think I was crazy already. Oh well, at least no one can see the burn mark on my chest – I'd hate to hear the rumors about that one.'

His thought process was cut off when he tripped over a boot stuck out in his path and went sprawling onto the ground. An all-too-familiar laugh penetrated his ears as he grabbed his dislodged glasses and put them back on.

"Have a nice trip, Dib?"

Dib glared up at Zim as he pulled himself to his feet. "I'm surprised you're in such a good mood," he said, "Considering I just blew up your cannon and stopped you from becoming Tallest." He smirked slightly as his nemesis's grin turned into a frown.

"Hear me well, human," Zim hissed, "You've only delayed the inevitable. It is my destiny to conquer this world and ascend to the throne. I've begun down this path, and nothing shall stand in my way."

"Except for me," Dib said with a grin, jerking a thumb at his chest, "The only way for you to win is over my dead body."

Zim's smirk returned. "That can be arranged, considering I have an assassin on my payroll these days. I find it hard to believe you've forgotten about her already, what with that little souvenir she gave you."

He gestured to Dib's scar, and his smirk widened when the human grimaced and instinctively reached up to touch it. "You were lucky to defeat Jana last time and walk away with only minor injuries, human. Next time, I'm certain she'll make you suffer _much_ worse before she kills you. Especially since you wounded her pride."

There was a flicker of fear in Dib's eyes, but he covered for it by glaring at Zim. "I've beat her before, I can do it again," he said, his voice wavering slightly, "Next time I see her, I'll-"

Zim laughed, cutting Dib off. "And what makes you so sure that you'll _see_ her? In case you've forgotten, she can make herself invisible. She could be standing right next to you right now and you wouldn't even know it… in fact, how do you know she isn't?"

Dib was starting to sweat nervously, and despite himself his eyes started darting around the hallway, looking for any sign of the cloak-wearing female Irken. Zim chuckled as he noticed this.

"Getting paranoid, are we?" he asked, "Don't worry, I wouldn't dare have you killed in public. I'm not an idiot."

"Could've fooled me," Dib muttered darkly.

The two enemies glared at each other for several minutes, before the bell rang for the next class – which, thankfully, they didn't share.

"This isn't over, Zim," Dib sneered, before walking off.

The Invader watched the human disappear down the hallway, before a savage grin split his face. "You're right, Dib. It isn't over yet… but it soon will be."

XXXXXXX

_Several Hours Later_

Zim strode into the cul-de-sac containing his base, pride emanating from his every step. His latest plan was circling through his mind over and over as he went over every detail of it. He wanted to make sure that there was no flaw for Dib to exploit like he had with the EMP Cannon; his destiny had been delayed enough already. This plan _would _succeed.

His train of thought was derailed all of a sudden when the ground shook from an explosion. Blinking in surprise, Zim looked around and was only mildly shocked to find smoke rising out through his house's windows. Seeing one of his neighbors staring at him, he put on a weak smile.

"Uh… that's normal, you know," he said.

The neighbor lady merely shrugged and went back to watering her garden. Zim, meanwhile, quickly ran into the house and shut the door behind him. Following the smoke trail into the kitchen, he found it emanating from under the refrigerator elevator to his labs. Minimoose was floating nearby, with a fan extending from his body, which was being used to blow the smoke out the window.

"What happened?!" Zim shrieked at his floating purple minion.

"Squeak!"

"I _know_ it was an explosion! I _meant_ what caused it?!"

"GIR was in one of the weapons vaults," the computer added, "You do the math."

"_Fragging etchuta!_" Zim cursed viciously, "This is _not_ what I need right before I start a new plan."

He mumbled incoherently for several minutes as he rode the elevator down to the level containing the weapons vaults, and followed the diminishing smoke trail to an open door. Normally, he would be greeted by the sight of hundreds of weapons stacked along the walls – everything from energy rifles to plasma bombs to chemical flamethrowers. However, now things were a little different…

Zim stared agape at the remains of his weapons, the racks holding them reduced to slag. The weapons themselves were lucky to be in one piece; most were blown apart, while the ones that weren't were deformed by the intense heat of the explosion. Meanwhile, a good chunk of the room was still on fire, though Jana - who was using the Irken equivalent of a fire extinguisher - was quickly putting that out.

Composing himself, Zim waited for his time-displaced servant to finish extinguishing the fire, before clearing his throat to catch her attention. Jana spun around, letting go of the extinguisher with one hand to instinctively grab her energy sword. When she saw Zim, she instantly dropped to her knees and bowed her head.

"Master!" she exclaimed, "I can explain this!"

Zim crossed his arms over his chest gave Jana a stern look. "Just explain one thing to me," he said, "How did GIR get in here to do this?"

"I honestly don't know," Jana said, shaking her head with a sigh, "I was going past here on my way to the hanger bay to check on the Voot when I heard that imbecile laughing his head off in here. I came in to drag him out, and the next thing I knew he had set off a photon torpedo launcher, which fired at the power cells for the ion cannons, and… well, I think you can figure out the rest, sir."

Zim didn't reply at first. He swept his gaze around the room, taking a mental inventory of everything he would need to replace, when he noticed something was missing.

"Hey, _where_ is GIR, anyway?"

Jana blinked, and then looked around the room to find that GIR was, in fact, nowhere to be seen. At least, until a pile of debris in the corner started shaking, and moments later GIR burst out of it. His metal body was singed and covered in soot, but that didn't seem to dampen his mood any.

"Let's do that again!" the deranged SIR unit shouted.

"Let's not and say we did," Zim said, glaring at his robot, "I can't afford any distractions. Not now that I've come up with a new _brilliant_ plan."

A spark of mirth appeared in Jana's emerald eyes as she asked, "You're going to throw GIR in a trash compactor?"

"Tempting, but no. I should have the groundwork for it covered in a few hours, after which I should have a job for you. In the meantime, you can make yourself useful by cleaning up this mess."

Jana flinched slightly, and Zim realized how harsh that last statement must have sounded. For a moment, he actually considered apologizing for it.

'Gah! What am I thinking?' he said to himself, 'I am Zim! And Zim does not apologize!'

"Well, uh, get on with it," was all he stuttered out, before turning and leaving the room. Jana watched him go, and after he was gone she sighed softly.

"Yes, milord. By your wish," she mumbled to herself, before turning to glare at GIR. "Great," she snapped at him, "Now Lord Zim seems to think I'm as useless as you are because of this. Thanks a lot!"

"You're welcome!" GIR chirped happily.

Jana's response to this was to hit the little robot in the head with the extinguisher.

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**A/N: There we go. Just a beginning, but I'm trying to stretch the story out a bit.**

**Next chapter: Zim's plan is revealed.**

**Read and review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Here you go, everyone. The first chapter of "Evolution of Evil", and I hope it was worth the wait. Sorry about that, but I kept getting side-tracked from my writing – mostly because I recently discovered just how addictive manga can be.**

**But, enough of my excuses, read on!**

**Disclaimer: Jana and the GESS belong to me. All canon Invader Zim characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez.**

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_The Membrane Household, The Next Day_

Dib scratched idly at his scar as he waited for his laptop to finish remotely hooking up with the Irken escape pod sitting in his garage next to the remains of Tak's Spittle Runner. He liked to think of the pod as compensation for Jana destroying the ship; it wasn't as advanced, but it was still _way_ ahead of anything else on Earth. Plus, its connection with Zim's computer had allowed him to do a little creative hacking.

Dib smirked slightly as he thought what he had done the other day after he had destroyed the EMP Cannon. He'd erased the blueprints for the cannon, as well as all the backup files, in order to prevent Zim from rebuilding it – not that Dib expected him to. He knew Zim well enough to know that he wouldn't bother repeating a failed plan; however, he had needed something obvious to distract Zim and the computer away from what he had _really_ done. He had found the programming for the Electronic Security Field in Zim's base and managed to create a "back door" in it, which would allow Dib to bypass the interference and once again access his spy cameras within Zim's lab.

"Now, if only this stupid thing would connect," he muttered, looking at his laptop's screen, where the message "**INITIATING HOOKUP**" was displayed over a power bar that was very, very, _very,_ slowly filling up.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Main Control Room, Same Time_

"…_And in other news, the Almighty Tallest have declared that due to increases in Resisty activity, sugar imports from Candyteria will be reduced,_" the anchor of the Irken News Network reported, "_Tallest Purple would also like to stress that the sugar shortages are entirely the Resisty's fault, and have nothing whatsoever to do with recent enlargements of the _Massive's_ snack pods. Furthermore-_"

Zim gave a snort of disgust and deactivated the computer screen. "They would have been announcing my ascension to the throne of the Tallest right about now, wouldn't they?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at Jana, who stood at attention in the corner of the room.

The emerald-eyed assassin cocked her head in thought as she compared the current date with what she remembered from her history lessons at the Academy. After a few moments, she said, "No, milord. They would have been announcing Second Tallest Arnor's challenge to you for the throne. _Tomorrow_ would have been the day you became Tallest, after you killed him in the ring."

"How'd I do that, anyway?" Zim asked, lifting an antenna in interest.

"It was simple really – though still rather ingenious," Jana added the last part quickly, as though afraid to hurt her master's ego. Zim chuckled slightly at that, and then gestured for her to continue.

"You faced each other in the ruins of this city, actually. For over an hour you fought amongst the rubble and the debris and the corpses of the humans, with neither one of you gaining an advantage over the other. Finally, you lured Arnor into what was left of a community pool; as soon as he entered you shattered the light fixture above him in order to temporarily blind him, and then you threw him into the pool. His battle armor weighed him down, so that by the time he got it off the water had dissolved enough of his body that he was unable to escape… probably."

Zim narrowed an eye in confusion. "Probably?" he asked.

Jana shrugged. "You blew up the pool facility to ensure that Arnor's PAK was destroyed so that none of his supporters could revive him. But this also had the side effect of no one being able to confirm _exactly_ how he had died. Not that anyone really cared after that, since you had won the fight and therefore earned the right to be Tallest."

"Maybe this time I should just have you kill him in his recharge cycle," Zim mused, "Or better yet, have my new pets deal with him."

Jana blinked in confusion. "What new pets?"

Zim merely chuckled.

"Follow me and I'll show you," he said, as he stood up and walked towards the elevator. Jana followed obediently, staying a respectful distance behind.

The elevator descended into the bowels of the base, nearly two miles beneath the surface. Jana raised her antennae in confusion as she noticed how far down they were going.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, milord," she said, "but I thought there was nothing down here but storage rooms."

"Until last night, there wasn't," Zim answered with a shrug, "I had the computer construct a new lab module underneath everything else for my new project. I figured the further down it was, the harder it'll be for the Dib-human to infiltrate it."

Jana merely nodded her understanding, and waited for the elevator to reach the new lowest level. When it reached the bottom of the shaft, it opened up to reveal a short corridor leading to a single door, which slid open as the two Irkens walked towards them and closed behind them after they entered the room. As the doors slid shut, several overhead lights flickered on, filling the room with the same magenta glow as the rest of the underground complex.

The century's worth of assassin/bodyguard training Jana had gone through in order to achieve her status as a Shadow kicked in, and she instinctively scanned the room to absorb every detail of its layout. The door opened up onto a platform that overlooked a huge chamber filled with large clear tubes, which were filled with some sort of liquid and something else that she couldn't make out, due both to the distance and because of condensation on the outside of the tubes.

A hover platform floated over, and Zim stepped on, gesturing for Jana to do likewise. Once both passengers were on, a holo-pad flickered into existence in front of the would-be Tallest. Zim typed in a command, and the platform flew over to the center of the room, giving Jana an idea of just how big it really was. Her previous assessment of "huge" didn't do it justice – the chamber was the length and nearly twice the width of a football stadium, and evenly spaced along that entire space were hundreds, if not thousands, of the tubes she had noticed earlier.

"Impressed?" Zim asked, smirking at the awe evident on his servant's face.

Jana's gaze turned from examining the room to look at her master. "What is all this?" she asked.

"My victory," was Zim's only response, as he typed a command on the holo-pad. The hover platform stopped in midair, and then quickly descended to the floor. Zim stepped off and walked over to the nearest tube, Jana quickly following after him.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, sir," Jana said.

Zim still didn't answer. Instead, he reached over and placed his hand on the exterior of the tube. Wiping aside the condensation, he stepped back, allowing Jana a view of the contents. Peering through the now-clear container, Jana raised an antenna in confusion at the sight that greeted her.

Suspended within the tube by some sort of clear liquid was what appeared to be an embryo. However, despite crosschecking with the database within her PAK, Jana was unable to identify the species. Looking out the corner of her eye, she saw Zim smirking at her, silently urging her to try and guess at the nature of the creature within the tube. After several moments, she finally gave a sigh and muttered, "Alright, I give up, milord. What is it?"

The maroon-eyed Invader's smirk grew, before he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his back against the tube. "I call it a GESS," he said, "A Genetically Engineered Super Soldier. The perfect living weapon, if I do say so myself. And, as much as I loathe to admit it, I have the humans to thank for this."

Jana blinked, and gave her master an inquisitive look. Zim's smirk shrank – though it didn't disappear – as he stared into the distance, his memories playing over in his mind. "I found out that humans have for quite some time been studying their DNA in an attempt to find a way to improve their pathetic excuse for a species. Then, after I did a little bit of research, I found that Professor Membrane and others in this field have even proposed to incorporate animal DNA into the human genetic code in order to provide humans with some of the strengths of the animal kingdom. And then it occurred to me – if humans could combine the DNA of several species to create a better lifeform, then why can't I?"

Zim's smirk returned to its former size when he saw realization dawn in Jana's eyes. She swept her gaze around the room once more, taking in all the tubes, each one containing an infant GESS.

"So," she said at last, "You're combining the DNA of various animals in order to create your own private army of vicious creatures with which to destroy the humans." She paused, before a grin appeared on her face and she looked Zim straight in the eye. "You truly are brilliant, master."

Zim felt his face heat up. He didn't know why, but there was something about the way that Jana looked at him sometimes that made him feel all… warm and tingly inside. It wasn't that it was a _bad_ feeling either, it was just something he wasn't used to. Shaking himself off, Zim brought himself back to the subject at hand.

"Yes, I know," he admitted, "But in any case, you are hereby ordered to guard this chamber. Should Dib somehow find out about this little project, he will no doubt try to make his way down here to destroy the GESS before they've been fully matured. That cannot be allowed to happen."

"How long will it take for the GESS to be completed?"

Zim scratched his chin as he thought that over. After a few moments, he said, "Well, the fluid they're being stored in is a special chemical compound designed to accelerate growth on a genetic level. So, I'd say it'll take about two weeks. Think you can handle that?"

The last part was said in a teasing tone he'd heard GIR use on occasion. He wasn't sure why, but it just felt appropriate. Jana blinked in confusion, but then she seemed to get the idea and grinned back at him.

"I think I can manage that, milord," she said with a bow.

Zim nodded, once again fully serious. "Good," he said, "I'll leave you to it then. I have to go make sure GIR hasn't left the front door wide open again."

He then turned around and walked onto the hover platform, which flew back towards the entrance to the chamber. Jana watched him go, a small smile on her face.

'So brilliant,' she thought, 'Even with history altered, nothing can ever change that brilliance, or his magnificence… and nothing can ever change the fact that he is so far above me, I will never be anything more than a servant to him. Oh well, I suppose I'll have to settle for basking in his glory from a distance.'

With that slightly depressing thought, Jana sighed and sat down cross-legged. Getting comfortable, she placed one hand on her energy sword in a preparatory position, and settled in to wait for anything that might happen.

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**A/N: And I'll end it right there. I was originally going to include more of Dib and a more in-depth description of the GESS, but I figured I had made you all wait long enough. So, the physical description of the GESS will be later on, when they have all fully developed.**

**As for Dib, there'll be more of him next chapter when he attempts to break into the lab housing the GESS. Of course, Jana's also down there, so that should prove interesting…**

**Until then, read and review!**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay everyone, here's the next chapter of "Evolution of Evil". Sorry about the late update, but my grandmother passed away recently, so I've been having trouble bringing myself to write.**

**Anyway, I know some of you are wondering why I'm having Dib break into the GESS lab so soon, and I do admit that it seems a little fast. However, the fight sequence in this chapter is important, as it will help set the stage for another major plot point of this story. Besides, there'll be even more intense fights later on when the GESS are all fully activated, so consider this an appetizer.**

**Well, rambling's over and done with; read on!**

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_The Membrane Household, Some Time Later_

Dib snored softly from where he was leaning against the escape pod – the pod and his laptop were taking so long to connect that he had fallen asleep from pure boredom. However, his nap was interrupted when his computer let out a loud beep, startling him awake.

"Who-what-where?!" Dib stammered, his head snapping around in confusion before he managed to reorient himself. Looking down at his laptop, he saw that it was flashing the message, "**REMOTE HOOKUP ACHIEVED**".

"Well it's about time," he muttered, typing commands into the laptop, and through it into the pod. The pod activated its connection to Zim's computer, and altered the Electronic Security Field so that the back door Dib had planted in it was open to the frequency used by his spy cameras. Once that was done, Dib activated the cameras and opened up a window to view the feed from them.

The camera in the living room of the house level didn't show anything out of the ordinary – GIR was having a tea party with his friend Pig while Minimoose was napping on top of a lamp – so Dib switched over to the cameras in the actual base. However, after a few minutes, he noticed something that he found a little unnerving; Zim was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't in the Voot hanger bay, or the communications room, or any of the many labs Dib had managed to plant cameras in.

"Where are you?" Dib asked aloud, continuing to switch between camera views. He finally found Zim, catching the Invader as he exited the elevator in the main control room. A large smirk was plastered on Zim's face as he marched into the room and planted himself in his command chair.

"_So, I take it the new lab was to your liking, master?_" the computer asked.

Zim's smirk widened as he leaned back and laced his fingers together in a thoughtful position. "_Oh, yes,_" he said, "_I do believe this is the single greatest plan I've ever come up with. Soon, my destiny shall be secured, and the Empire shall praise the name of Zim._"

"_Right,_" the computer said, more than a little sarcasm dripping off its simulated voice, "_Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I think I should point out the obvious here – what about Dib?_"

"_Forget about him,_" Zim snarled, "_I'll deal with him when the time comes._"

With the tone of the computer's following statement, Dib was pretty sure it would have been rolling its eyes if it had any.

"_Yeah, that's a _great_ idea. That's what you decided last time, and look what happened._" The computer paused, before continuing, "_At least with the EMP Cannon, it was in orbit; when it was destroyed, the damage didn't risk exposing us. With the GESS, if Dib does anything, it's right here in the base – and it's not exactly a small plan either. We could be exposed! You and Jana will get dissected, but more importantly, the humans will probably tear me apart to learn how I work and then sell me to Microsoft! Can you imagine the indignation-_"

"_Enough!_" Zim snapped, "_I don't care about your pathetic worries, computer. I left the Cannon vulnerable, which is how the Dib-Monkey was able to destroy it. The GESS lab, however, is buried beneath the entire base. There is no way for that wormy little human to get in._"

The maniac Irken paused for a moment, and then began chuckling darkly. "_Besides,_" he added, "_Even if he does somehow make his way down there… he'd be dead before the day ended._"

Dib shivered slightly as he heard that statement. However, his curiosity soon overpowered his instinctual fear – what the heck was a "GESS"? What was Zim planning this time? And how could he stop it?

Sending a command to the pod, Dib quickly brought up the layout for Zim's base. The 3-D map spread out over the laptop's screen, and Dib rotated it to show the bottom of the complex collection of spherical laboratory modules and their connecting tunnels. The central elevator shaft, which stretched all the way from the house built on top of the base straight through the middle of the complex to its bottom, now extended even further downwards into a single module that wasn't connected to anything other than the shaft.

"Well, he knows how to isolate something so that I can't get at it, I'll give him that," Dib muttered, "He must have just built that lab, so that means there's none of my spy cameras in there to tell me what's going on. Meanwhile, the only way in is through the central elevator shaft, and the house level entrance is probably set up with all kinds of security… so how do I get in?"

He tapped a finger against the edge of the laptop absentmindedly as he thought over what to do. Suddenly, a thought hit him and he started typing away, a grin forming on his face. A few seconds later, a series of red lines highlighted themselves within the modules and tunnels – ventilation shafts. And as Dib had thought, at least one per level of the base extended into the central elevator. So, all he had to do was find a way to get into one of those, then crawl through it into the elevator shaft, and then climb down that into the new laboratory.

"And here I thought this would be hard," he muttered sarcastically, "How am I supposed to get into one of those ventilation shafts without going through the house first?"

Dib sat there for a few minutes in silent thought and observation as he tried to figure out another way to get into the base, when he noticed something. The way that the base was set up, it seemed that one of the modules on the lowest most level of the base (not counting the new lab) at least partial penetrated a sewer tunnel, leaving the module itself exposed. If he could figure out a way to get in through there…

XXXXXXX

_Sewer Tunnel Near Zim's Cul-De-Sac, One Hour Later_

"Well, that's Zim for you," Dib said with a raised eyebrow, "Subtle as a flying hammer."

The outer edge of the module, at least three feet's worth, was poking out of the shattered brick and cement of the sewer tunnel wall. However, that wasn't what Dib was commenting on. He was more interested in the way that the exposed module was "camouflaged" – a very bad paint job was splashed over it, making it look like a giant clown face. There were also several small smiley faces drawn haphazardly all over it; those were probably GIR's contribution.

"And _still_ people don't believe me about him being an alien?" Dib asked rhetorically.

Shaking his head, Dib opened up the backpack he'd brought with him and pulled out an industrial blowtorch. It hadn't been too hard to acquire – he just told his father that it was needed for a Skool project, and Professor Membrane was practically throwing tools at his son to aid him in his newfound pursuit of "real" science.

Chuckling slightly to himself at the memory, Dib put on the appropriate safety gloves and goggles and got to work. After a few minutes, he had cut a five-foot by three-foot panel out of the module wall, and with the help of a crowbar, he soon managed to pull the panel out. As it hit the ground with a loud clatter, Dib cringed, and then examined the opening he had just made into Zim's base.

The hole extended all the way through into the module, emitting the magenta glow of the chamber out into the sewer tunnel. Tossing the blowtorch and associated supplies back into the backpack, Dib slung it over his shoulder and crawled through the hole, slipping out the other side and landing on the floor with a thud.

With a grunt that was more out of annoyance than pain, Dib pulled himself up and quickly checked his surroundings. As he'd thought, the room was one of the storage chambers where Zim kept God-knows-what that he'd either brought or imported from Irk and other planets, or gathered here on Earth. Dib wasn't too worried about security – before he'd left his house, he had used the pod to upload a little self-made virus to the base computer. It would knock out the security systems in the lower part of the base for a couple of hours – while disguising it as a simple error in the power systems – which should provide him with plenty of time to sneak into the "GESS" lab, figure out what it was for, and then sneak out.

He quickly found a ventilation shaft and pried it open with the crowbar, after which he forced himself into the small space and began crawling in the direction of the elevator. A few minutes later, he could see the end of the shaft ahead of him, just past an intersection with another shaft. However, before he could reach it, a scuttling sound from down the intersecting shaft caught his attention and he froze. A soft violet light appeared from the shaft, followed seconds later by one of Jana's spider drones.

The little robot whistled and chirped as it examined the intersection with its glowing optic. But just as it was about to turn towards Dib, he quickly struck it with the crowbar, breaking it almost in half. He then swung the crowbar at the drone, which was letting out a high-pitched shriek of alarm. When the crowbar hit the drone, it went skidding down the small corridor and broke through the air vent, tumbling down the elevator shaft and disappearing from sight.

"Well, that saves me some trouble," Dib said as he examined the busted vent. He then pulled out a long length of cable and tied one end around the remains of the vent. After checking to make sure it was secure, he let the rest of the cable uncoil and drop down the shaft towards his target.

XXXXXXX

_The GESS Lab, A Few Minutes Later_

Sweating with exertion, Dib pressed the crowbar through the space between the elevator doors and pried them open. Before they could close again, he jumped through the opening, letting the doors slide shut behind him. After repeating the process with the next set of doors, he stood up and brushed himself off. He then looked around and let out a whistle of appreciation at the size of the lab.

Seeing an emergency staircase off to the side of the platform, Dib walked down it and started examining the nearest of the giant tubes. He was just about to reach up and wipe away the condensation so he could get a good look at the contents when the scar on his face started burning. Hissing in pain, he reached up and rubbed it.

"What the heck?" he asked – right before something hit him in the head and sent him flying across the floor. His vision swam for a moment, and just as it began to clear an all-too-familiar laugh filled his ears and sent a shiver down his spine.

"Oh, I've been looking forward to this," Jana said as she deactivated her cloaking device and shimmered back into visibility. Dib pulled himself to his feet and glared at the Irken assassin, who returned the favor in kind with her own green orbs.

"Shouldn't you still be healing?" Dib asked icily, as he began edging around the tube to put it between the two of them. Unfortunately, Jana saw the obvious move and also began circling the tube, keeping Dib in her sight.

"Oh, please," she said with a roll of her eyes, "Did you really think a minor wound like the one you inflicted on me during our last encounter would slow me down for long?"

"A _minor_ wound?" Dib asked, slightly stunned, "Your arm was practically falling off!"

"I'm Irken. And more importantly, I am a Shadow – it will take more than the near loss of a limb to stop me."

"Like this?" Dib asked rhetorically as he whipped out his crowbar and lunged at Jana. Unfortunately, she grabbed the crowbar before it could make contact with her head, and then pulled on it, dragging Dib towards her. She then grabbed him by the throat with her free hand and squeezed, smirking as she did so.

"Did you really think that would work?" she asked.

Despite the pressure on his throat, Dib still managed to smirk, making Jana blink in confusion.

"Not really," he croaked out, right before there was the sound of a flame igniting. Looking down, Jana's eyes widened as she saw that Dib had pulled out the blowtorch and placed it against her… and that was all she had time to register before her cloak caught fire.

Shrieking in alarm, Jana tossed Dib aside and began beating at the flames that were spreading over her body. Seeing that it was a losing battle, she quickly pulled the cloak off and threw it to the ground, kicking at it with her combat boots. A few seconds later, the flames were put out, leaving behind a burned and scorched piece of black material which now had holes burned in it. Seething, Jana looked up to see Dib disappearing around one of the GESS tubes down the aisle they were in.

"You're dead, Dib!" she shouted after him, "Do you hear me you little monkey?! I _liked_ that cloak!"

She took off after him, reaching for the energy sword on her belt. As she rounded the tube she had seen Dib turn at, she ducked as he swung the crowbar at her again. Turning the duck into a roll, she jumped to her feet and activated the energy sword. Swinging it, she cut the crowbar clean in half before slamming her fist into Dib's solar plexus and sending him stumbling backwards into one of the GESS tubes. As he struggled to get his breath back, Jana swung the sword towards his head with the intent of taking it off. However, before she could, she was interrupted.

"Stop!" Zim's voice cut through the sterilized air of the lab, and Jana instinctually obeyed; the blade of the sword stopped mere inches away from Dib's neck, causing the skin to begin to blister.

The recovering human and the female Irken looked up to find Zim floating above them on a hover platform. The Invader looked down at them, his red eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back in a sneer as he glared at his nemesis.

"He's mine," he said, venom dripping off of his voice.

Jana nodded and backed away, lowering the energy sword but not deactivating it. As soon as she was out of the way, Zim leapt off of the platform towards Dib, his spider legs extending mid-flight and stretching out in front of him. Dib yelped and jumped out of the way, just barely dodging the spear-points of the legs as they shot past him and penetrated the metal floor. As Zim attempted to pull the legs free, Dib turned to run, only to find Jana blocking his way.

"You're not going anywhere," she said, "Lord Zim's not through with you yet."

Dib realized he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and began racking his brain for a plan. Seeing Zim almost had the stuck legs free, he began stalling for time.

"So, how'd you know I was down here?" he asked.

"Did you really think a simple power outage virus would fool me?" Zim snorted, "I may not know how you got into the base, but I was still able to realize you had and were most likely making your way down here. And I will _not _let you ruin another of my plans."

With a grunt of exertion, Zim pulled the spider legs free and aimed them at Dib, who was moving as far sideways as he could in the narrow space between tube aisles. The spear-points began glowing with energy as the weapons powered up for an attack.

"Any last words, Dib-Worm?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dib said with a slight smirk, "head's up"

As Zim blinked in confusion, Dib suddenly rolled to the ground, picked up one of the pieces of the severed crowbar, and threw it at Zim. The Irken jumped to the side, and the large piece of metal flew by him.

"Missed me!" Zim taunted.

"Wasn't aiming for you," Dib replied, pointing behind Zim.

Zim turned around to see that the crowbar piece had impacted the GESS tube directly behind him, causing the glass-like material to crack. As he watched, the cracks began spreading, and the fluid within began spraying out.

"Aw, _etchuta,_" was all Zim could mutter before the tube burst completely. The fluid flowed out in a wave, carrying the shattered glass out with it, and slammed directly into him. Dib sprinted between two other tubes, narrowly avoiding the tidal wave of alien chemicals. Over the sound of the flowing liquid, he could have sworn he heard some kind of high-pitched squealing, but he didn't have time to investigate it – he'd have to escape and come back later when he was more prepared for a fight; only then could he figure out what Zim was making down here.

As Dib ran for it, Jana leapt down from the top of one of the tubes – where she had escaped the mini-flood – and quickly made her way over to her master, who was lying on the floor in a semi-conscious state. Several large pieces of glass had pierced his body, and he was groaning in pain. With a worried frown, Jana began pulling the shards out as gently as she could; unfortunately for Zim, it was still extremely painful. As Jana pulled the last piece out of his chest, he let out a loud scream and nearly shot up into a sitting position as he regained awareness, but the female grabbed his shoulder and held him down.

"Do not try to move, master," she said, "Your body has been badly damaged."

"I had worse during Invader training," Zim muttered, waving his servant off and shakily getting to his feet. Looking around, he said, "I take it Dib escaped?"

Jana didn't meet Zim's eyes as she answered. "I'm sorry milord. I know I should have gone after him, but you were wounded, and my duty is to protect you, so-"

"It's alright," Zim cut her off, "While I'd prefer that nuisance dead, he hasn't damaged the plan any… well, not counting _that._"

Jana followed Zim's pointing finger, and grimaced as she saw an infant GESS – the former occupant of the shattered tube – lying dead on the floor. Its underdeveloped lungs hadn't been able to allow it to properly breathe yet, so it had died when exposed to the atmosphere.

"Dispose of it and clean up this mess," Zim ordered as he turned on his heel and began limping away. Jana noticed this and called after him.

"Are you sure you're alright, master?" she asked.

"You worry too much, Jana," he answered over his shoulder, "I am Zim. Something like this won't slow me down for long. Everything is fine"

However, unbeknownst to both of them, everything was _not_ fine. For when Zim had been pierced by the glass, the tube fluid – the genetic accelerant – had entered his body. And even as the two Irkens spoke, it was circulating his blood stream and being absorbed by his tissues, getting right to work at doing what it was designed to do.

Soon, for the second time in a week, Zim's destiny would be drastically altered…

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Wow, this was a **_**lot**_** longer than I thought it would be. Hope that makes it worth the wait. And I again apologize for the short fight scene; but like I said, once the GESS are up and running, there'll be **_**plenty**_** of intense fighting.**

**Next chapter: Zim begins to notice the effects of the genetic accelerant in his bloodstream.**

**Until then, read and review!**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, I'm sorry for the late update, but I had serious writer's block on this chapter. I'm trying to have the side effects of Zim's exposure to the genetic accelerant happen gradually, but still fast enough that there's still a plot going on while we wait for the GESS to develop – I'm not a big fan of time skips larger than a few days in the middle of a story, so don't expect me to use that as an excuse.**

**Also, sorry for all the exposition in the beginning, but it helped with the block and the word count.**

**Anyway, read on!**

**Disclaimer: I own Jana and the GESS. All other characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_Zim's Base, Zim's Bedroom, The Next Morning_

The first thing Zim noticed when he awoke from his PAK recharge cycle was that his head was killing him. Zim instinctively began rubbing his forehead while mentally sending a command to his PAK to release a dose of headache medication into his bloodstream. Grumbling nonsensically to himself, the Irken disconnected his PAK from the recharge cables, which slowly retracted into the wall next to his bed.

Getting up, Zim stretched, working out the kinks that had formed in his back while he had been mentally shut off – he refused to use the word "sleeping". The term and all variations thereof were too human for his tastes; besides, "sleep" implied that it was something he did often, but as everyone in the galaxy with a half a brain knew, Irkens only went into the equivalent of sleep when they were recharging their PAKs. And that was hardly a regular occurrence; it varied from once every week to once every month, depending on how much energy the Irken in particular used up.

Zim himself was usually a weekly recharger. There was some sort of flaw (not that he'd ever admit it to anyone) in his PAK's energy cells, necessitating that he refill them so much more often than most other Irkens; however, he was still so dedicated to his mission that he had installed a secondary recharger in the base's main control room so that he would always be near to his work – hence the rarely-used and virtually empty bedroom. Aside from the bed, the only other thing in the room was a large trunk where Zim kept the few mementos from his past that had pleasant memories attached.

Shaking himself free from his internal narrative, Zim turned and made his way towards the elevator set into the side of the room. Said elevator led up to directly below a lamp in the corner of the living room, which slid aside to permit the Invader to rise up in his usual menacing fashion. However, that ominous image was distracted from by the slightly confused look that appeared on his face due to the sight that greeted him.

Jana was seated on the couch, her damaged cloak settled on her lap as she pulled a long string of black thread through one of the holes that had been burned into the article of clothing. A spool of the thread was set upon Minimoose's head/body, while the purple super weapon floated nearby, apparently happy to help. Zim merely stared for a few seconds, a little shocked to see his ruthless minion doing something so… domestic.

"You sew?" he asked, as he regained his voice.

Jana jumped in surprise – she hadn't heard him come up. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she turned to look at him.

"W-well," she stammered, "I find it to be a helpful hobby – talent! I meant to say talent, not hobby. I don't do this for fun."

She was fully blushing at this point, as she tried to salvage what was left of her dignity. Zim only smirked at that; he always enjoyed making people uncomfortable, and besides, Jana was rather cute when she was flustered…

'Wait, _what?!_' he thought to himself, panicked. 'Where did _that_ come from?'

"So, uh, where's GIR?" he asked quickly, trying to get his mind off of that particular train of thought, "Knowing him, he should be watching _that monkey_ on TV right now. Either that or getting in your way."

"I also figured that might happen," Jana replied as she got back to work, "So I locked him in the tool shed out back."

"What tool shed?" Zim asked, blinking stupidly for a moment, "I have a tool shed?"

"You do now," the computer chimed in, "Jana had me construct it a few hours ago and GIR hasn't bothered breaking out since she threw him in – I think he's eating the shovels in there or something."

Zim rolled his eyes as Jana closed the last hole in her cloak and stood up, throwing it over her shoulders and re-clasping it around her neck. Looking it over, she frowned as she saw how the burn marks and new patch jobs stood out from the rest of the material. Noticing the look on her face, Zim commented, "If you don't like how it looks now, why not just make a new one with that 'talent' of yours?"

Jana's face once again flushed as she was reminded of their earlier conversation, but she quickly steered the current conversation away from that subject.

"I could never bring myself to part with this cloak, milord," she explained, "It was given to me upon my completion of the Shadow initiation trials. To me, however, it symbolizes more than that. To me, this cloak – this entire uniform – is a mark of my devotion to the Empire."

She smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck before adding, "I guess that must sound like sentimental foolishness, eh?"

"Not really," Zim said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I still have my ceremonial battle armor from when I graduated Invader training on Devastis. I feel the same way about it as you do about – GAH!"

He was cut off as his previous headache – ten times as strong as before – suddenly returned in a sharp jab of pain. Zim grabbed his head and hissed between his teeth as his vision blurred and his antennae filled with a strange buzzing sound. He was vaguely aware of Jana grabbing him as he nearly fell over and guiding him to the couch, where he collapsed into the soft cushions. After a few minutes, the world came back into focus and the buzzing died down… though neither it nor the headache went away completely.

As his vision cleared, he found Jana sitting next to him, a concerned look on her face. The honest concern shining through Jana's eyes made Zim's face heat up, but he quickly fought the blush down before it could fully form.

"Master, are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he grumbled, ignoring the pain in his head and pushing himself to his feet.

"Sir, you almost passed out," the computer said, "I think that it would be wise for you to stay home today."

Zim glared at the ceiling as he began pulling on his disguise. "Computer," he said with a hint of disdain, "Your job is not to think. It's to run the base and do what I tell you to do. Now shut it!"

"Yes sir," the computer replied meekly.

Jana bit her lip as she watched Zim put on his disguise and march towards the door. She knew it would be futile to try and stop him from leaving the base when he was obviously ill; he had a determined look in his eyes that she had seen his future self display more than once, and all those occasions had taught her that she wouldn't be able to steer him away from a path he'd chosen for himself.

Still, she cared about him too much to not even try to look out for his health.

"Milord, are you really sure you should be attending a human place as public as the Skool when you do not seem to be in the best condition?"

Zim paused at the door and turned to glare at her. He wasn't actually mad at her, in fact he could completely understand her concern. However, the constant pain in his head and the irritating buzz in his antennae were overriding the logical, understanding portion of his brain with anger.

"I already said that I'm fine you idiot!" he snapped, "And even if there was anything wrong with me, my PAK would fix it. Besides, I am not going to give the Dib-Stink the satisfaction of thinking that his attack yesterday wounded me enough to keep me confined to the base. So here's an idea – leave me alone and guard the GESS lab like I told you to. Is that understood? Or are you deaf in addition to being completely worthless in a fight?"

Jana flinched at the harsh tone and insults. She bowed and muttered an affirmative response, keeping her gaze on the floor as Zim grunted and walked out the door. For a few moments, there was silence in the room, though this was soon broken by the sound of dripping liquid as something fell from Jana's lowered face to the floor. Minimoose noticed this and uttered an inquisitive squeak.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm not crying," Jana said, straightening herself and quickly wiping her face with the hem of her cloak, removing any incriminating evidence. "Irkens don't have weak emotions like sadness – especially not Shadows. We are trained to think only of our duty to our Tallest."

As she said that, she began shuffling towards the refrigerator-elevator.

"Speaking of which, I should probably get down to the GESS lab. I have orders after all…"

She trailed off as she got onto the elevator and began descending into the depths of the base. Minimoose watched her go, and when she had disappeared he uttered a sad-sounding squeak, sinking a little in mid-air.

"You said it," the computer replied, "Even for Zim that was kind of harsh."

"Squeak?"

"Nah, I don't think he _really_ meant it. In fact, I think he actually does like her… a _lot._"

Minimoose stared in confusion for about thirty seconds before his eyes widened in realization.

"Squeak!"

"Yeah, that was my reaction when I figured it out. I just hope that _he_ figures it out soon – the tension between the two of them is driving me crazy."

XXXXXXX

_The High Skool, An Hour Later_

Dib walked down the hallway, a slightly smug grin on his face. After he had escaped the GESS lab, he had quickly made his way out through the entrance he had made in the storage module. Before fleeing down the sewer tunnels, however, he had made sure to put back the panel he had cut out of the module wall. He didn't know how effective that sort of "camouflage" that was, but if it actually worked and neither of the Irkens found the opening…

'If Zim and Jana don't find it, then I'll still be able to use it to break back into the base and figure out just what the heck a GESS is,' he mused, 'Of course, they're going to be expecting me to try again so soon, so I should wait a few days before I try again. On the other hand, the longer I wait the more time Zim has to complete whatever this new plan is. I can't let that happen.'

Dib was so lost in thought that he wasn't watching where he was going, and he was jarred back into reality when he bumped into somebody. Hard. As the two of them fell to the floor, Dib began sputtering apologies, but stopped when he realized just whom he had bumped into.

"Oh, it's _you._"

Zim glared at his nemesis, but instead of snapping out an insult he merely gritted his teeth and placed a hand on his the side of his head. He then grunted in annoyance and walked away without giving the human another glance. Dib raised an eyebrow at this out-of-character behavior and called after the Invader.

"What's with you?" he asked, "Isn't this usually the point where you gloat or insult me or something?"

Zim stopped and turned to once again glare at Dib. It was at that point that the young human noticed that Zim wasn't just holding his head; he seemed to be massaging it. Dib merely stared at that, but before he could fully register it Zim spoke up.

"I'm in no mood to waste my breath on you today, Dib-Monkey," Zim snarled.

"You just did." Dib smirked at the expression on Zim's face before continuing, "What's wrong? Upset that I kicked your ass yesterday?"

The Irken growled like some sort of wild animal at that comment; his eyes narrowed to slits and he dropped his hand from his head to by his side, where he clenched it and its counterpart into fists.

"Listen carefully, human," he hissed, "Yesterday's confrontation was but one battle. In the end, individual battles don't matter in the big picture – and that big picture is the fact that soon I will be ruler of this world."

Dib rolled his eyes. "Gee, where have I heard that before?" he asked sarcastically, "Oh wait, that's right. You say that every time and I always beat you. Face it Zim, you can't win by yourself, or even with Jana. You'd need an army to take over this planet, and you don't exactly have one lying around, now do you?"

Zim's lips, which had been pulled back in a sneer, suddenly twitched and lifted up into a sadistic grin. He began chuckling, much to Dib's confusion. Said confusion only increased when, just as Zim stopped chuckling and opened his mouth to speak, he instead cried out in pain and doubled over, grabbing at his head.

"Uh… are you okay?" Dib asked, not entirely sure what to say in response to what he was seeing.

After a few moments, Zim quickly composed himself, though he kept one hand on his head. Glaring once more at Dib, he simply muttered out, "It's none of your concern, pig-smellie."

He then turned around and walked off towards his next class. Dib watched him go, confusion filling his mind.

'Just when I think that stupid bug can't get any weirder…' he thought to himself.

"What was that?" Zim snapped, looking over his shoulder. Dib blinked in surprise.

"I didn't say anything," he said, holding up his hands defensively.

Zim gave him a look that was half a stare and half a glare, before shrugging it off and walking away, leaving Dib even more confused than before.

XXXXXXX

_Half An Hour Later_

Zim groaned to himself as Mr. Sourz droned on about how the government should round up the nation's homeless and exterminate them in order to remove their strain on the government. Dark as this rant was, it didn't use the word "Doom" fifty million times, so it was still better than one of Ms. Bitters' lessons.

He probably would have been enjoying his teacher's speech more on another day, but not today; he had a headache the size of the _Massive,_ and the buzzing sound he'd been hearing all morning had increased exponentially since he'd arrived at Skool. But that wasn't even the worst part – whenever Zim wasn't too distracted by the pain that felt like it would tear his skull apart, he kept remembering what he'd said to Jana before he had left the base that morning. He realized now that he shouldn't have been so harsh with her. She was the loyalist of his minions, after all, and she was just trying to look out for him…

'For the love of Irk, what's wrong with me?' Zim thought, 'Since when do I feel guilty about yelling at people?'

The bell rang just then, and everyone began filing out of the room to Mr. Sourz's order of "Get out of my sight, you disgusting maggots." As Zim trudged down the hallway, there was another surge of pain in his head, causing him to cry out and to nearly collapse. Instead, he backed into a small space between two banks of lockers, bracing himself against the wall and once again clutching his head.

As soon as it had come, the new pain disappeared, and the buzzing died down to an almost imperceptible level. Zim sighed in relief and pressed back against the wall, resting his head against the sickly yellow-painted wall and shutting his eyes. He had to figure out what was wrong with him soon, before his brain fried from the constant pain.

'…_**freak, yelling like that, then just standing in the corner.**_'

Zim's eyes snapped open and he looked around to see who had just insulted him. Spotting Torque and a few of the other jocks hanging out in a group down the hall, and seeing that Torque was giving him a dirty look, he glared and prepared a comeback.

'_**Great, now he's looking at me. Shouldn't he and that nut job Dib be trying to kill each other or something?**_'

Zim froze with his mouth half-open as whatever he had been about to say died on his tongue. He'd been looking directly at Torque the whole time… and his mouth hadn't moved when Zim heard him speak.

"You got a problem, freak?" Torque asked, glaring at him.

Realizing that this time Torque had actually voiced his comment, Zim struggled to find his voice.

"Uh, no?" he finally squeaked out, too startled to say anything else.

Torque grunted, then turned and walked away with the rest of his group.

'_**Freak.**_'

Zim shuddered, the pain in his head momentarily forgotten as he processed what had just happened. Somehow, someway, he had actually _heard someone's thoughts._ That shouldn't have been possible; the Empire's best scientists had spent decades looking into the ability of telepathy, but had eventually been unable to prove that it actually existed. So how could it be that he suddenly seemed to possess it?

'I need to get to the lab,' he thought desperately, 'I need to find out what's happening to me.'

He started walking towards the building's main entrance, deciding to skip the rest of the day's pointless classes and get back to his base as soon as possible. However, as he worked his way through the sea of humans to get near the doors, he found himself nearly overwhelmed as the buzzing in his head changed into a chorus of peoples' private thoughts.

'…_**another F, my old man's going to kill me…**_'

'…_**bet she doesn't even know I exist…**_'

'…_**God, I hope no one notices this zit on my forehead…**_'

Zim's vision became blurry as his brain struggled to cope with the new sensory input. Barely making out a door near him, Zim stumbled forward, and after a few moments of struggling managed to open it. Slamming the door shut behind him, he sighed in relief as the small barrier that the door provided cut back on some of the voices in his head. However, they persisted, and Zim's vision continued to swim. As it settled enough for him to make out his surroundings, he cursed.

Instead of the front doors or even a classroom, he had found the door to a janitor's closet. Now he actually had to go back out into the hallway, surrounded by all those people. By all their thoughts…

The Invader's knees wobbled at the mere thought of that, and he grabbed the doorknob to try and steady himself. It proved to be futile, however, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"I hate my life…" he muttered, before his eyes rolled into his head and he blacked out.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Wow, this story has the longest chapters I've ever written for any of my work. Anyway, I hope it was worth the wait, and that you all like the cliffhanger I ended up using.**

**Next chapter: After regaining consciousness, Zim begins exploring his new abilities… and I do mean "abilities" plural.**

**P.S. I think it's fair to tell you all that I'll be on vacation for about a week-to-ten days starting Saturday, so it'll be awhile before the next chapter is posted. Sorry.**

**Until then, read and review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I was away from my computer for a week, and then I got a serious case of writer's block just as I got back. But I've got the chapter now, and just in time for the two-year anniversary of me setting up my account on FFN. So, I suppose this doubles as an anniversary present to myself.**

**I also want to apologize that this chapter is shorter than some of the previous ones, but like I said, the muse wasn't quite with me on this one.**

**Anyway, why don't we just start with the chapter?**

**Disclaimer: I own Jana and the GESS. All other characters and concepts belong to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_Zim's Base, A Few Hours Later_

The first thing Zim noticed as he slowly regained consciousness was a pair of green eyes looking down at him. His head was still fuzzy, and his vision was still blurry, so he couldn't make out any other details of the person he was looking at, but that was okay because he rather liked the eyes. They were beautiful really, like a shining pair of emeralds. He became aware of someone talking to him, but he was still too groggy to make out what they were saying; anyway, couldn't they leave him alone? He just wanted to keep looking at these eyes…

Something heavy suddenly hit him in the chest, and his view of the eyes was blocked by something bright blue.

"HEY MASTAH! YOUZ UP YET?!"

GIR's screeching voice brought Zim fully back to awareness, and he blinked his vision clear to find his robot sitting on top of him with his face pressed against Zim's own. Confusion mixed with his usual anger over the violation of his personal space, and he batted GIR off of him with a swing of his arm.

"GIR! Get off of me!" he snapped, pushing himself up to a sitting position. Looking around, he found to his surprise that he was back in his base, in one of the examination rooms. He was lying on an examination table, with a series of cables from the computer hooked into his PAK. He attempted to remove them, but a black-gloved hand gently but firmly grabbed his wrist. Turning, Zim saw it belonged to Jana, who was standing next to the table with a concerned look in her eyes.

Her _green_ eyes… Zim felt his face heat up as he remembered the thoughts he'd had in his half-conscious state. Shaking it off, he pulled his hand free and glared at his servant.

"What's going on?" he snapped, "How'd I get back here?"

"Your PAK activated an emergency beacon after you passed out," Jana said, her voice containing a hint of worry, "As soon as I received it, I made my way to the Skool as quickly as possible. Once I found you and saw that you weren't physically harmed, I brought you back to base and hooked you into the computer so that it could run a diagnostic on your PAK to find out if it or you sustained any damage. It should be done in a few minutes…"

She trailed off and looked away; her concern for her master was virtually overwhelming, and was starting to show in her voice.

'Best to stop talking now, before I say something stupid,' she thought with a sigh.

"Like what?"

Jana jumped at the sound of Zim's voice and turned to look at him. His antennae were cocked into a confused angle, and he was looking at her expectantly.

"Beg pardon?" she asked.

Zim's confusion grew as Jana responded and looked at him blankly. Then, he suddenly recalled his revelation at the Skool, and everything clicked. Smirking slightly, Zim adjusted himself on the table so that he was comfortable. He laced his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands, locking eyes with Jana. Her face flushed nervously under his intense gaze, and she felt ammonia-based beads of sweat begin to form around her eyes.

"I-Is something wrong, milord?" she stammered out.

"Don't speak for a few moments," Zim said slowly, "Just think of something. Anything."

Jana merely blinked and complied, one thought passing through her mind.

'What in the name of Irk is this supposed to prove?'

"That I can read your mind," Zim said with a grin, causing Jana to jump again. She could only stare at him in shock, her mouth opening and shutting as she tried to form words. Zim's grin widened at this; he'd only known Jana for a short time, but in that time he'd learned that she was nearly impossible to startle, so this was quite the accomplishment for him.

"…How?" was all the assassin was able to finally croak out.

Zim shrugged. "Excellent question, but I'm not sure how to answer it. I was at that stupid pig-smelly educational facility when my headache suddenly intensified to an unbearable amount, and the next thing I know I'm able to hear the thoughts of those around me."

"I think I might be able to explain that," the computer chimed in as it retracted the cables from Zim's PAK, "Having found that there was nothing wrong with your PAK itself, I used it to scan your body for any sign of any sort of problem. And I seem to have found the cause; while testing your blood, I detected trace amounts of the GESS genetic accelerant."

"What?!" Zim shouted, hopping off the table and walking over to the computer console.

Jana trailed behind him, still slightly in a state of shock, as an image of a sample of Zim's blood appeared on the screen. Droplets of a nearly translucent liquid surrounded the green blood cells, occasionally being absorbed, causing the cells to slightly expand and distort. Seeing this, Zim's hands clenched, drawing claw marks across the console.

"How did this happen?" Zim snarled.

"Gee, I dunno," the computer said sarcastically, "Think it could maybe have anything to do with what happened when Dib broke in here yesterday?"

Zim flinched as he remembered how Dib had smashed open one of the GESS tanks, causing his body to be pierced by the shattered remains… some of the accelerant must have leaked through his wounds into his bloodstream. This realization caused anger to well up in the Invader, and Jana backed away slightly as he began shaking in barely contained fury.

"That _fragging _big-headed monkey!" Zim cursed, slamming his fists into the console. As he did so, the chair next to him was suddenly ripped off of the floor it was _bolted to,_ and sent flying into the wall so hard the wall dented. Both Irkens jumped as this happened, looking over at the chair in shock and confusion. However, after a few seconds Zim realized just what had happened, and his mouth went dry.

"Telekinesis," he breathed, barely able to believe it. Turning back towards the computer, Zim tried and failed to keep the panic he was feeling out of his voice as he asked, "Computer, what exactly is happening to me?"

The computer was silent for a moment, taken aback by the fear it had detected in its master's voice – normally, Zim had too much pride to show any hint of any "lesser" emotions, like fear. Then again, considering what he was going through, it was understandable. Bearing that in mind, the computer began explaining.

"Well, master, to put it simply, the accelerant is still doing its job. You see, it was designed to be infused into the GESS cells as they were first created, at which point it would mutate the various strands of animal DNA so that they would fit with each other – thus allowing the GESS to actually live and develop – and still maintain the various attributes of each species that you wanted to keep."

"I'm aware of all that," Zim snapped, as Jana dragged his damaged chair away from the wall and set it in place behind him, "I'm the one who _created_ the accelerant in the first place, remember? What I want to know is how it is giving me these… abilities."

"I was getting to that," the computer replied testily as Zim sat down, "Since your DNA is already complete, the accelerant had to alter it in another way. In this case, it appears to be targeting and activating your junk DNA."

"His what?" Jana asked, her antennae cocking into a confused angle.

"Obscure scientific fact," Zim answered, "No species – not even us Irkens, who are more advanced than any other race – uses all of its genome. Only a certain percentage of genes are used; some have since been rendered obsolete by evolution, while others have not yet been activated and do not yet serve any purpose."

"And in your case, it appears to be the latter that the accelerant is targeting," the computer butted in, "It's entirely possible that some of the obsolete genes might get reactivated at some point, but for the time being master I think it's safe to say that your new abilities are solely a result of the non-evolved genes being activated by the accelerant."

GIR chose that moment to add to the conversation. "Yay! Mastah's turning into a superhero, just like on TV!"

Both Irkens turned to glare at the idiotic SIR unit, who wasn't even fazed by the harsh looks, then turned back to the computer.

"Why do I have the feeling that if you tried to read his mind all you'd hear is crickets?" Jana asked with a smirk.

"Because he's probably got crickets in that storage warehouse he calls a head," Zim answered, grinning back at Jana. She blushed slightly, and Zim felt his own face heat up. However, before either of them could say anything, the computer gave off a burst of static in its equivalent of a cough.

"Not to interrupt the witty banter, but I wasn't done yet," it said.

"Of course, computer, carry on," Zim said, quickly averting his gaze away from Jana and back towards the console. He really hoped that whatever the computer was about to say would help him figure out why he felt so weird around Jana lately…

The image on the console changed from the sample of Zim's blood to split screen 3-D images of an Irken brain. The one on the left was mostly shaded purple, with red highlights around the exterior and threaded throughout the interior; the image on the right had many more highlighted areas.

"The image on the left is a representation of an average Irken brain," the computer explained, "While the one on the right is your brain, master – it would appear that you are now exhibiting much more synaptic activity than the average Irken. This increase in brain cell function was probably what gave you these mental abilities of yours."

Zim tapped a finger against his chin in thought. "That would also explain the pain I experienced earlier…" he mused softly.

Jana had an expression on her face that implied she was only partially following the conversation, but that was understandable. After all, she had spent her life studying to be a soldier, not a scientist, so she only had the fundamental scientific training that was given at the Academy. Pushing that aside, she spoke up.

"So, are the telepathy and telekinesis the limits of Lord Zim's new abilities?" she asked.

"I doubt it," the computer said in a tone that implied a shrug, "They're probably just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In any case, though, I also doubt that he'll show any more physical signs of any changes within him – his brain doesn't show any sign of any more synaptic increase. And speaking of the mental abilities, might I suggest that you practice at them?"

Zim glared at the console before him. "You dare tell me what to do computer?"

"I said _suggest,_ master. Or would you rather pass out from overhearing too many thoughts again?"

The mutated Irken didn't respond. He merely grumbled under his breath, then stood up and stalked towards one of the secondary elevators. Jana moved to follow him, but he held up a hand to stop her.

"You head back down to the GESS lab," Zim said, "I think it's probably for the best if I'm alone for this training. Zim does not have the patience for things to get awkward if I overhear something in your head that I shouldn't."

Jana frowned slightly, but nodded. "As you wish, milord."

Zim grabbed GIR on his way to the elevator, but paused before getting in. Heaving a sigh, he looked back over his shoulder at Jana, an unusual look on his face.

"Um, by the way Jana…"

"Yes sir?"

"I just wanted to say… sorry. You know… about what I said before I left the base this morning."

A small smile formed on Jana's lips and a warm feeling rose up inside her, but she quickly quashed it before she could have any embarrassing thoughts near her newly telepathic master.

"That's alright, master. I know you didn't really mean it."

Zim smiled back at her, and looked like he was about to say something else when GIR – still in his grip – shouted out, "YAY! Youz two made up! Group hug!"

"No, GIR. There will be absolutely _no_ hugging," Zim said with a glare as he stepped into the elevator.

GIR's whining "Awww" was the last thing Jana heard from either of them as the elevator doors slid shut.

Still smiling, Jana made her way towards the main elevator.

"Wow, he actually apologized to you," the computer commented, "He must really like you. If you catch my drift…"

"Shut up," Jana snapped, as she entered the elevator and made her way down to the GESS lab.

"Ah, young love," the computer said sarcastically, as it went back to its job of monitoring the base.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: So, there's that chapter done. I again apologize for the length. I'll try to make up for it with the next one. But I hope you all enjoy my explanation for Zim's powers. And like the computer said, this is only the beginning…**

**Next chapter: Some more action and fluff, and an important part of the plot as Probing Day arrives.**

**Until then, read and review!**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay, I figured since it took so long to get the last chapter up, that I'd get this next one up as soon as possible. So, I'm working on this instead of the next "Journal" entry. And I think you'll all enjoy what I've got going on in this installment – action, fluff, plot development, it's all here.**

**Bearing that in mind, read on!**

**Disclaimer: Jana and the GESS belong to me, everything else belongs to the Great Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_The Membrane Household, Three Days Later_

Dib nervously paced around the garage as he waited for the pod and his laptop to hookup again. It had been three days since his last encounter with Zim, and the Irken hadn't shown up at the High Skool since. The last time that had happened, it was because that giant fat Irken with the gas mask had kidnapped Zim – Dib somehow doubted that had happened again. Especially since the Robo-Parents (dragged out of whatever closet Zim had been moth-balling them in for the last few years) had actually shown up at the Skool with a sick note.

The Robo-Mom had broken down the door to Mr. Sourz's classroom and slammed the note onto his desk shouting something intestinal worms. Then the Robo-Dad had started crying about how _he_ wanted worms because they tasted so good with Tabasco sauce (Dib had almost vomited at this point), so the Robo-Mom had comforted him by saying they could go play in the city cesspool. They had then fired their thrusters and flown up through the roof, raining pieces of plaster down on the assembled students.

"Not that anyone but me found that exceptionally odd," Dib muttered to himself as he continued to pace, "And meanwhile, I _still_ have no idea what he's planning. What the heck is a GESS, damn it?"

Since he still had no answers, and he had yet to work up the courage to break into the base again, he had decided to just use the pod to access his spy cameras as he had earlier in the week. And today, he knew, was his best bet to do so. After six years, he had managed to memorize the exact date of Probing Day, the only Irken holiday he knew of (if the Tallest calling up all the Invaders just to beat them up qualified as a holiday, that is), which just so happened to fall on the current date.

It was also the one day that Dib was certain to find Zim in the communications room; even though the Tallest never called the normally inept Invader, he always called them in order to brag about how close he was to conquering the Earth. You'd think after six years that Zim would have realized he wasn't getting anywhere with that, but seeing as how Zim was Zim…

The laptop (which Dib had left on a stool) beeped, indicating that the connection between it and the pod was established. Walking over to it, Dib quickly typed in commands and brought up the view of the communications room. Zim wasn't there yet, but Dib was certain he'd show up soon, at which point he'd reveal his plan to the Tallest – and, by unwitting extension, Dib.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting…

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Training Room, Same Time_

Zim slowly twirled an electro-lance in one hand as several insectoid drones circled him. The training room was large and bare, with a small booth set into the side where GIR sat operating the controls; the rest of the room was mostly empty, except for the remains of various other drones and obstacles that the mutant Irken had destroyed over the course of the previous three days of training.

Bringing the lance to rest, held in one hand and braced against the open palm of the other, Zim prepared himself for another round.

"Begin," he ordered, not even bothering to look over his shoulder at GIR.

The robot squeaked and gave a thumb's up, then hit the switch on the console before him that activated the drones. The bug-shaped machines immediately sprang into action, launching themselves at their target. Zim somersaulted over the drone directly in front of him, striking out with the electro-lance as his feet touched the ground.

The electrified tip of the weapon slammed into the drone's back, overloading its generator and causing most of it to explode. The other drones turned towards him, but Zim merely extended his free hand and furrowed his nonexistent brow in concentration; seconds later, two of the drones were sent flying backwards into a third, crushing it against the wall. The remaining drone swerved around the two thrown ones and got in close enough to begin slashing at Zim with its claws.

However, Zim easily dodged the sharp objects that were attempting to take his head off – he'd discovered early on in this training spree that, in addition to his new mental abilities, he had also gained a massive increase in speed and agility. His body twisted in ways it hadn't been able to since he was a freshly hatched smeet, before his muscles had fully developed and his limbs had been capable of bending like rubber; and as far as speed went, he was practically a living blur.

As he dodged one of the clawed limbs, the drone attempted to bring another one down on his head, but he quickly blocked it with his lance. For half a second, Zim considered using his PAK legs, but then he grinned and decided against it. He was having too much fun relying on something in a fight other than his PAK for a change. Calling on all his strength (which had also received an increase), he slammed against the drone, pinning it to the wall of the training room. As it struggled to break free, Zim pressed all his weight against the lance to hold it in place, then raised one hand. Once again concentrating, he clenched his hand into a tight fist. The drone only had time to let out one last high-pitched metallic squeal, and then its head was crushed, its optics popping out and its CPU smashed to pieces.

One of the drones Zim had sent flying earlier came flying back at him, but he quickly flipped through the air out of its reach and telekinetically gave himself an added boost, landing halfway across the room. The drone turned towards him again, but before it could move Zim threw the lance as hard as he could. It hit the drone square between its optical sensors, causing it to short-circuit and spasm for several moments before going offline and collapsing.

The final drone, whose legs had been damaged when Zim had thrown it across the room, dragged itself towards him. Its back popped open, revealing a moderately sized ion cannon. The weapon began charging, but before it could fire Zim reached out with both hands and once again concentrated – not on the telekinesis, but another ability he had discovered during his training. Just as the cannon was about to fire, the fuel within the drone's power cells was ignited, causing the robot to explode.

Zim activated two of his spider legs and used them to project a forcefield, shielding himself from the explosion. As the debris bounced off the protective barrier, Zim's face was split in half by a grin. He remembered when he had first developed that ability…

XXXXXXX

_::Two Days Earlier::_

_Zim dodged around a series of spikes that rose up from the floor in a set pattern in front of him. Just as he passed the last one, a spinning circular saw swung at him on a mechanical arm. He ducked under it and rolled out of the way, and as it swung back towards him, he stretched out an arm and narrowed his eyes in concentration. Beads of sweat formed on his head as he exerted himself, but just before the saw hit him it snapped off the arm holding it and went flying backwards. It slammed into – and through – the spikes, cutting them in half before skidding to a halt on the floor._

_The would-be Tallest got to his feet and brushed himself off. As he did so, he realized something – he had been training virtually nonstop since he had discovered his new abilities, yet he was only now starting to feel the slightest exhaustion._

"_GIR!" he shouted, making the SIR unit poke his head out of the control booth, "Halt the training for a moment."_

"_Okey-dokey!" GIR said, before popping back into the booth. Zim then turned his attention to the ceiling._

"_Computer, run a scan. Check to see if my PAK is running on the proper power setting; I've been exerting myself, but I still seem to have plenty of energy."_

_A cable descended from the ceiling and attached to Zim's PAK. There were several moments of near-total silence, broken only by the sound of GIR's laughter as he hit himself in the head with something, before the computer spoke up._

"_Master, your PAK appears to be operating at its regular power output. Your body, however, doesn't seem to be using as much energy from the PAK as it normally does."_

"_Eh?" Zim blinked in surprise. "Why not?"_

"_I am detecting various chemicals in your body that seem to be quite similar to human adrenaline. It would appear that your body is developing them naturally and using them as fuel."_

_Zim raised an antenna in confusion. "I thought Irkens no longer required such things, since we rely on our PAKs for energy?"_

_The computer would have nodded if it were capable of doing so. "That's true, sir. When PAKs were first invented, the Control Brains in charge of the smeet hatcheries altered the genetic code of all new smeets created from that moment forward so that they wouldn't produce such body chemicals – they felt that keeping that trait in addition to the new properties of the PAK was redundant. The accelerant must have reactivated those gene sequences."_

"_So what does this mean for me?"_

"_As I said, the combination of the PAK energy cells and natural body chemicals is redundant, which in this case means you're getting double the amount of energy. In addition to your stamina, you will most likely also receive boosts in speed, agility, and possibly strength."_

"_I see," Zim said, tapping a finger against his chin in thought, "Interesting. I suppose that-"_

_WHAM!_

_A giant metal mallet slammed into Zim, disconnecting his PAK from the cable and sending him flying across the room. He hit the wall with a crash, falling flat on his face. As he scrambled to his feet, his eyes widened as he saw dozens of obstacles popping out all over the training room. Most weren't even aimed at him, however, but rather they were apparently activating at random; several were destroying each other even as Zim watched. The Invader could only stare in confusion, before realization hit him even harder than the mallet had._

"_GGGGGIIIIIRRRRR!!!!!" he screamed, looking across the room at the control booth._

_Through the glass window of the control booth, Zim could see that GIR had finally given in to temptation and was now hitting buttons on the control console at random, laughing hysterically while doing so._

'_I knew I should have brought Minimoose down here instead,' Zim thought with a sneer. Glaring at GIR from across the room, he began weaving around the various weapons that the crazy robot was unleashing as he made his way towards the control booth._

"_GIR! I didn't order you to start the training back up yet!" he shouted as he quickly dashed between two giant blocks that slammed together with a deafening crash, "Cease this at once!"_

_GIR, fully in random mode, ignored his master and pulled a large lever, shouting something about wienies, Julio Iglesias, and Disney's Space Mountain. As soon as the lever was pulled all the way down, the section of floor Zim was standing on flipped up like a springboard, sending him flying back the way he had come. He once again landed flat on his face, and as he pulled himself up his antennae flattened against his skull in anger._

"_GIR," he snarled, seething as he grit his teeth together, "I. Said. STOP!!!"_

_As he roared that out, the air inside and surrounding the control booth began shimmering as an intense amount of heat suddenly built up in it, and moments later the booth exploded in a bright burst of flame. Zim blinked in surprise, his anger suddenly forgotten as the obstacles and weapons around him went dead. A few seconds later, GIR jumped out of the burning booth, either not noticing or caring that he was on fire._

"_Yay! It burns!" the metal lunatic shouted, before he began rolling on the floor to put the flames out._

_Zim, meanwhile, merely stared at the remains of the booth as it was doused in flame-retardant foam (but not water, naturally). As he began to process what had just happened, a smirk formed on his lips._

"_Pyrokinesis," he muttered, before the smirk turned into a full grin._

"_Neat."_

XXXXXXX

Zim hummed the "Doom Song" as he strolled over to the rebuilt control booth; after the computer had reconstructed it, Zim had made GIR promise not to overdo it on the controls again. It hadn't been that hard – he had just promised to give GIR a coupon for Krazy Taco in exchange. As Zim reached the booth, GIR hopped out and stared at his master expectantly. Rolling his eyes, the Irken reached into his pocket and pulled the coupon out.

"Run along now, GIR. You've earned it," Zim said, the shadow of a smile on his face as GIR grabbed the coupon with a squeal and ran out the door.

"So, are you done training yet?" the computer asked, a hint of urgency in its voice. Zim, however, didn't notice and shook his head.

"Not quite yet, computer," he said as he cracked his neck and stretched his limbs, "Tell Jana to come up here."

The computer was silent for a few moments as it relayed the order, before speaking up again. "Master, is it wise to be exposed to another person so soon? This training has been aiding you in gaining control of your new combat abilities, true, but you haven't even been trying to learn how to control your telepathy."

"I beg to differ," Zim said, as he wiped away the faint sheen of sweat that had formed on his forehead, "What did you think, computer? That I would mediate or some other pointless human activity? No, I took a logical approach to this. Since most of my new abilities are mentally controlled, learning how to control some of them helps me with others, for it trains me in using my mind."

"No comment," the computer deadpanned.

Zim glared at the ceiling, but before he could say anything the doors to the room slid open and Jana entered. Instantly, a now familiar sound filled Zim's head; however, before any of Jana's thoughts could filter into his mind, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Focusing his mind, he quickly pushed back against the white noise, reducing it to a barely-audible buzzing. Grinning at his success, Zim reopened his eyes to find that Jana had lowered herself to one knee before him, her head bowed in submissive respect.

"You summoned me, master?" she asked.

Zim nodded. "Yes. As you're aware, I've been training with my new abilities. However, combat drones are one thing; I need to train against an opponent who can think for themselves. And you're the only servant I have who can actually put up a decent fight."

Jana merely stared in shock for a minute or two before she found her voice again.

"Y-You want me to _fight_ you?" she stammered.

"Yes."

Jana shook her head defiantly as she stood up. "I can't do it master. I _won't._ It goes against everything I have dedicated my life to."

Zim rolled his eyes at this. "Much as I admire your loyalty, Jana, I do believe that it's blinding you. This will be a simple training session, nothing more. Neither of us will be in danger of any serious harm."

Jana blushed as she realized how much she had overreacted. Of course Zim wouldn't force her to try and hurt him – he had to know it was one order she wouldn't ever follow. And it wasn't just because of her training and profession; the feelings she had for him, which she knew she _shouldn't_ have in the first place, wouldn't allow it.

"Of course. I'm sorry for that outburst, sir, it won't happen again," Jana apologized, bowing her head.

Zim snapped his fingers, and a slot in the wall opened up. With a _whoosh_ of hydraulic mechanisms, two stun-staffs were ejected, one at each of the combatants. Both Irkens caught the staffs and swung them experimentally to get a good feel for them. Stun-staffs were more lightweight than electro-lances, and considerably less dangerous – if you were hit by one, at most the affected area would go numb or sting for several minutes. Therefore, they were ideal for basic combat training sessions; military instructors on Devastis commonly used them, though they tended to amp the power settings up, so as to further increase their cadets' suffering.

Zim twirled his for a moment before he stalked over to the other side of the room. Turning around as he reached the center of the training area, he got into ready position, waiting for Jana to join him. The assassin unclasped her cloak and dropped it to the floor, removing it as a restriction to her movements, before walking to a spot directly opposite her master. She bowed at the waist in the traditional means of preparing for a training fight, an action that Zim returned in kind.

"Begin," he said.

Jana nodded, then quickly jumped forward and brought the stun-staff down in an arc aimed at Zim's head. Zim quickly brought his own up and blocked the attack, then grabbed Jana's wrist and pulled, spinning her around. Jana turned the spin into an attack, brining her booted foot up in a kick. Zim ducked out of the way and rolled away from Jana before jumping to his feet and swinging his staff at her. She jumped into the air and landed behind him, and while he was off balance from the swing, she lashed out with her staff.

"Gah!" Zim gasped as the tip of the stun-staff grazed his side, just below the PAK. Jana grimaced as she watched Zim tenderly rub the sore spot.

"Should we stop now, milord?" she asked.

Zim's grimace turned into a small grin.

"No. I'm just getting warmed up," he said, before aiming a jab at her midsection.

Jana blocked, but was knocked to the side when the blunt side of one of Zim's PAK spider legs hit her in the shoulder. She skidded several feet across the floor, before she managed to pull herself back to her feet. Looking back at her master, she found that he had deployed all of his spider legs, and was giving her a cheeky grin. Jana wanted very much to be upset at the dirty move, but for some reason when she saw that grin all she could do was grin back.

"So, that's the way you want to play it then?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Yep," Zim answered, grin still in place as he slowly twirled the stun-staff.

"Alright then," Jana said, activating her own spider legs as she ran forward. Using two of them as springboards, she launched herself at Zim, aiming the remaining two legs and the stun-staff at him. Zim merely extended his free hand in response, and Jana suddenly stopped in mid-air. She blinked in confusion for a moment, before she figured out what had happened and scowled. With a grunt of frustration, she threw the stun-staff at Zim. Yelping in surprise, Zim dodged to the side, breaking his concentration on Jana, who fell to the floor and landed in a crouch. Seeing that Zim was still disoriented from the surprise attack, Jana ran forward and tackled him, sending his stun-staff flying and both of them to the floor. They rolled for several moments before finally coming to a stop, ending up in a heap.

The computer shut off its speakers to stop from laughing at the sight; Zim had ended up lying right _on top_ of Jana. As he braced his hands against the floor and pushed himself up, Zim realized the position the two of them were in and froze, his face turning a darker shade of green. Jana, meanwhile, had also realized what had happened, and was blushing even harder than Zim was. And to make matters even worse, the Invader was so distracted he lost control of his telepathy again.

'_**Oh gods, he's right on top of me – I can feel his pulse! This is so embarrassing! What if he thinks I did that on purpose? What if because of this he finds out… wait a minute.**_'

"Um, y-you weren't reading my mind just now, w-were you?" she stammered out, her blush increasing.

"Uh, y-yeah. S-sorry about t-that," Zim said, finding it suddenly hard to speak, much to his confusion. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, he continued, "So, uh, what is it exactly that you're afraid that I'll find out?"

Jana's blush had now increased to the point that her face was practically black. Finding it hard to keep looking Zim in the eyes, but unable to look away, she quickly said, "Oh, uh, it's n-nothing, master. Nothing you need to worry about, nothing at all."

Ordinarily, Zim would have found this statement suspicious and filed it away for future reference, but right now his mind was too foggy for him to really notice. In fact, he didn't even notice that the already small distance between their faces was slowly but surely decreasing…

"Squeak!"

Both Irkens' heads snapped up to find that Minimoose had entered the room. The purple moose blinked in confusion, staring at both of them for several seconds in silence.

"Squeak?"

"No, you're not interrupting anything!" Zim snapped, still dark in the face as he quickly scrambled to his feet, "What do you want, anyway?"

"Squeak!"

"Why would I need to be in the communications room?"

"Squeak!"

Zim's eyes widened. "It's Probing Day?! Computer! Why didn't you tell me?!"

The computer reactivated its speakers to answer. "I tried to remind you yesterday, master, but you told me that if I interrupted your training you'd replace me with a chess program."

The mutated Invader glared at the ceiling and was considering setting the computer on fire when a small coughing sound drew his attention. Turning around, he found that Jana – who had pulled herself to her feet and was putting her cloak back on – was giving him an inquisitive look.

"If you don't mind my asking, milord," she said, "Why does it matter? You no longer have any loyalty to those fools who call themselves Tallest, after all."

Zim nodded. "True," he said, "But I realized something while I was training – considering the sheer brilliance of this plan, considering that once the GESS are released they'll ensure my conquest of this planet, the Tallest are sure to come here to witness it. And when they do…"

He grinned evilly and drew a finger across his throat. Jana, getting the point, nodded.

"Now then, I should make my way up to the communications room. You can head back to the GESS lab now." Zim paused, suddenly looking awkward, before looking away and muttering, "Thanks, by the way. For the training session, I mean. It was… invigorating."

Jana was glad she had put her cloak back on; the hood hid the fact that she was once again blushing. Grinning slightly, she bowed as she said, "It was my pleasure, master."

Smiling, Zim turned and walked out of the room. As he walked towards a secondary elevator to take him to the communications room, the computer spoke up.

"If I can offer a word of advice sir, you may want to avoid using your pyrokinesis when you and Jana are in the same room."

Zim raised an antenna in confusion at that. "Why?"

"Well, considering the amount of pheromones you two are giving off around each other, you're likely to blow up the base."

Zim nearly fell over from shock.

"What?!" he snarled, "Computer, are you implying that Jana and I have feelings for each other that are not professional?"

"I'm not _implying_ anything, master. I'm _saying_ it."

Zim growled, once again going dark in the face. "Computer, if you _ever_ say anything like this _ever_ again…"

The computer got the unspoken threat and instantly shut up. Zim merely grunted and continued on his way to the elevator.

XXXXXXX

_The _Massive, _A Few Minutes Later_

"Well done, Invader Gooch," Tallest Red said to the Invader on the holo-screen. Said Invader had just been pummeled to a bloody pulp by several large mallets, due to his puppet show having been less than satisfactory in the Tallests' opinions.

"Thank you, my Tallest," Gooch said woozily, before passing out.

Red chuckled to himself as the screen went blank, and turned to look at Purple, who was holding a snazzy metal clipboard with the names of all the Invaders on it.

"So, how we doing?" the scarlet-eyed Tallest asked his co-ruler.

"Great!" Purple said as he crossed Gooch's name off of the list, "In fact, this may be the best Probing Day we've had since we became Tallest. We've managed to make it through almost all the Invaders without-"

"Incoming transmission from Earth!" one of the bridge technicians shouted.

"-that happening." Purple finished with a sigh, which Red joined him in. The latter grabbed a doughnut and began chewing on it as he gestured to the technician to open a communications channel. The holo-screen switched from the standard image of the Imperial Irken symbol over to static for several moments as it established a connection with Zim's communication system.

"Hello Zim, what is it this-" Red cut himself off with a choke, gagging on his doughnut while next to him Purple's clipboard fell from his suddenly limp hands. The cause of their shock was evident to anyone watching, for appearing on the screen, his body radiating power, was Zim, in all six feet of his glory.

"Hello, my Tallest," he said, a slight sneer evident in his voice during the greeting, "I do believe I have something you might be interested in hearing…"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: And I think I'll end it right there, otherwise this is going to go on forever. I know I always say these chapters turn out longer than I think they will, but this time that is **_**especially**_** true. This is, by far, the longest chapter of any story I have ever written, and I hope you all enjoyed it.**

**Next time: Zim's plan accelerates, while Dib counter-plans, and an important visitor comes to Earth.**

**Until then, read and review!**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Here we go, the next chapter of "Evolution". Just plot development, but trust me, there is **_**plenty**_** of action on its way. Until then, you'll just have to be patient.**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters are mine. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zim bit back on his laughter at the looks the Tallest had on their faces. Their jaws looked unhinged, and their eyes seemed about ready to pop out of their sockets.

It was understandable, really. Over the course of the past few years, ever since he had modified his height, Zim had been careful to hide his new stature from his leaders – it was against Irken law to increase one's height artificially. Zim had known this, of course, but he had been so desperate to preserve his mission that he had broken that law in order to make it seem that he was continuing to grow just like a "normal" human. That had been his only concern; it was only after Jana had arrived and revealed his destiny that he had seen the potential for power that his increased height provided. And now all that stood between him and that power was the two idiots gaping at him from the holo-screen before him…

Speaking of whom, they seemed to have regained their powers of speech.

"What… you… tall… how?" was all that Purple was capable of stammering out. Red, meanwhile, was still spitting out pieces of the doughnut he had been choking on a few minutes earlier.

"Oh, you noticed?" Zim asked, trying very hard to maintain the naïve and slightly stupid personality he had shed when he had grown. The Tallest would already feel threatened because of his height, no reason to let them know that he was now smart enough to be an actual threat to their power.

"Yeah, this _just_ happened," he continued, lying through his teeth, "I guess because of this stupid spinning ball of filthy dirt's lighter gravity, my amazing body was able to grow past its normal bounds. Isn't that great?"

He was fairly sure he was going to make himself sick if he kept this up – was this _really_ the way he used to talk?

By this point, Red had managed to compose himself, and was giving Zim a suspicious look. Floating closer to the holo-screen on his side of the transmission, he narrowed his eyes slightly. His antennae lowered into a guarded position, showing that the scarlet-eyed Tallest was angry, but was trying very hard to control it. This was also understandable, considering how much he hated the Irken before him – seeing him so tall, the most coveted thing for Irkens, must have really ticked Red off.

"So, this _just_ happened?" he asked.

"Yep," Zim responded, nodding while forcing a stupid smile onto his face, "I figured Probing Day would be the best time to tell you – along with my most brilliant plan ever to take over this _filthy_ planet!"

The Tallest seemed to relax at this, seeing that Zim's personality apparently hadn't been changed any by his increase in height. Red's antennae shifted into the stiff position of mere annoyance, rather than outright anger.

"Yeah, that's great Zim," he said with an eye roll, "But we're kind of busy right now, in case you didn't notice."

Purple nodded as he picked his dropped clipboard back up off the floor. "Yeah, so why don't you just blow yourself up now and get it over with so that we can get back to hurting… I mean, _inspecting_ the other Invaders?"

Red snickered a bit at that, while Zim's hands clenched in anger. The air around him began shimmering, but he quickly took a calming breath and focused, stopping the pyrokinesis before anything exploded. After making sure that he had himself under control, he forced an obliviously calm look back onto his face.

"Actually, my Tallest," he said, forcing himself not to spit the title out, "This plan _doesn't_ involve blowing things up. At least, not right away."

Both Tallest blinked.

"Then… what's the point?" Purple asked, raising his antennae in confusion.

Zim merely grinned and pressed a button on his console. This caused a holographic image to appear on the _Massive's_ bridge, slowly rotating as everyone looked at it in varying degrees of shock. After a few minutes of silence, Red spoke up.

"What in the name of Irk is that thing?" he said, a combination of fear and shock evident on his face.

"I call it a Genetically Engineered Super Soldier," Zim said, grinning widely at the reaction his creation was receiving, "Or GESS, for short. I've got a whole army of them growing in my basement lab. I just collected DNA samples from several of the most powerful, most deadly animals on this planet, and fused them together into one lifeform. Once my army is completely matured, I'll just release them into the outside world and let them tear the Earth-monkeys apart, like the disgusting bags of filth that they are."

The Tallest stared at Zim wide-eyed. Then they looked at the hologram of the GESS. Then they looked back at Zim. This continued on for several minutes – Zim was half-considering getting something to eat while he waited – before Red finally spoke up.

"That's… that's not a bad plan," he said slowly, not believing what was coming out of his mouth, "You actually came up with a brilliant plan for taking over that planet."

"But of course," Zim replied coldly, "I am Zim."

For a moment, the Tallest could have sworn they saw an evil smirk on Zim's face while he said his favorite sentence, but then they blinked and all he had on his face was his usual enthusiastic grin.

"The GESS should be mature enough to awaken from their growth tubes in about a week," the Invader continued, "Should I expect you to arrive with the Armada to bare witness to the doom I will then unleash?"

Purple opened his mouth to answer, but Red cut him off.

"Give us a minute to discuss this."

The Tallest moved off-screen and began talking in hushed tones. Zim frowned and narrowed his eyes in concentration, attempting to read their minds, but he got nothing, not even the familiar background buzzing.

'Damn,' Zim cursed to himself, 'Telepathy must not work over long distances.'

He broke his concentration and silently fumed until the Tallest reappeared on the screen. When they did, he quickly slipped back into his facade of a loyal soldier, letting the fake smile spread across his face.

"Well?" he asked, making sure to try and speak in a positive tone, rather than an impatient one.

"We've decided that this plan of yours _does_ seem more likely than not to succeed," Red said, "But just to be on the safe side, we're sending an inspection team."

Zim blinked in surprise. "You mean you're not coming yourself?"

"Not right away," Purple said with a shrug, "Considering your, uh, not-so-good record with making horrible monsters as living weapons, we want to make sure that these GESS things won't go on a rampage and kill us or something."

The maroon-eyed Invader frowned. "I have perfect control of my creations."

He nearly snarled out the statement, but managed to control himself and say it in a respectful manner. Not noticing his attitude, the Tallest continued.

"Yeah, that's what you said about your Absorbing Blob-thing, isn't it?" Purple asked, causing several of the bridge technicians to shudder as they remembered the monstrosity that had eaten two of their Tallest in the past.

"Exactly," Red nodded in agreement, "You wouldn't want these things to kill us, would you?"

"Of course not," Zim said through clenched teeth, hoping that would hide the sarcasm in the statement. Composing himself, he then asked, "So when can I expect the inspection team?"

Red shrugged. "You said about a week, right? We'll send the team then."

Zim saluted, hating every moment of the act of servitude. "As you wish my Tallest. Until then, this is Invader Zim, signing off."

He then flicked a switch on his console, sending both of the holo-screens into static as he cut communications.

XXXXXXX

_The Membrane Household, Same Time_

Dib, pale in the face, gripped the laptop tightly in his hands to keep from dropping it in shock. He had heard everything; he had wanted to find out what Zim was planning, and now that he had he felt like he was going to throw up and pass out… though not necessarily in that order.

"Well, at least I know what a GESS is now," he muttered weakly, "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?"

He'd caught a glimpse of that hologram of the GESS that Zim had transmitted to the Tallest. He didn't think he could fight one of those things, let alone a whole army of them. The only solution he could think of was to stop Zim and Jana _before_ they could wake that army up – but how?

Dib was pulled from his thoughts when, on the screen, Zim sat down and put his feet up on the communications console.

"_Well, that didn't go quite as I planned, but all this means is that I adjust my schedule a little,_" Zim said as he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

"_I notice you didn't tell them about your new abilities,_" the computer said.

Dib blinked in surprise. Abilities? What abilities?

"_Of course not,_" Zim said with a sneer, "_With these abilities, I have what the humans call an 'ace in the hole'. On the odd chance things go downhill, I'll still have a few tricks up my sleeve. No reason to make Jana do all the hard work._"

The computer was silent for a few moments, before asking, "_So, what do we do about the inspection team?_"

Zim gave a noncommittal grunt as he crossed the legs that he had resting on the console.

"_We do our best to impress them. If we do that, then the Tallest will come._"

The Invader paused for a moment, and then began chuckling darkly.

"_And when the Tallest _do_ come,_" he continued, a Cheshire Cat smile on his face, "_then we eliminate them. Once those two buffoons are out of the way, the path will be clear for me to ascend to the throne. I shall secure my destiny as leader of the Empire, and finally destroy this pathetic planet, all in one fell swoop._"

Dib stared in shock. Had he just heard what he thought he just heard? Sure, just before the incident with the EMP Cannon, Zim had been bad-mouthing the Tallest, but to talk about actually _killing_ his own leaders…

"Boy, is he lucky that they didn't hear him say that," Dib muttered. Then, his eyes widened as inspiration hit him like a ton of bricks.

"That's it!" he shouted, and quickly inserted a disc into the computer before he began frantically typing away at the keyboard. A few minutes later his work was complete – he had copied the footage of Zim openly plotting to kill his leaders when they arrived onto the disc. Now, all he had to do was try and get this information to this "inspection team" that was coming; hopefully, whoever was in charge would then use this obvious act of treason to deal with Zim for Dib once and for all.

He doubted it would be hard to do, all things considered. After all, this inspection team thing sounded pretty important; they'd probably send someone who was smart, rational, and levelheaded enough to know how to handle the situation.

XXXXXXX

_Planet Irk, Tallest Tower, Same Time_

"Why do _I_ have to do it?!" Pretty-Mighty Third Tallest Gor whined.

On the room's main holo-screen Red and Purple rolled their eyes at Gor's childish attitude. Sort-Of-Mighty Second Tallest Arnor also rolled his eyes, while sitting in the main recliner-throne in the center of the room and helping himself to a soda.

"Because," Red said, sounding like he wanted something a little stronger than soda, "This inspection is an official visit, which therefore requires an official member of the Imperial government to head it. And Pur and I are _way_ too busy to waste time on it."

"Plus, it's Zim, and we hate him," Purple stated bluntly.

"So do I!" Gor shouted, waving his arms in the air, "Anyway, why can't Arnor do it? Isn't it the Second Tallest's job to do stuff that the Tallest can't or don't want to?"

"Yeah, but it's the _Third_ Tallest's job to do things that the _Second_ Tallest can't or doesn't want to do," Arnor replied with a smirk. He took a sip from his soda, and then added, "Dooky rolls downhill."

Gor glared at his technically-superior officer, but before he could say anything Red spoke up again.

"Look, Gor, just go to Earth and check these GESS things out," the crimson Tallest said tiredly, "If it turns out that this plan is as foolproof as Zim seems to think it is and he can control these… _things_, then congratulate him, authorize him to use them, and get the heck out of there."

Gor scratched the side of his head in thought. "But what if he _can't _control them?"

Purple shrugged as he helped himself to some curly fries. "Let 'em eat the little Defective, for all I care."

"But won't they try to eat _me_ too?"

Both Tallest paused at that. They were quiet for several seconds before looking at each other, and then at the holo-screen.

"Err, sorry Gor, didn't quite get that, your transmission's breaking up. I think we're going through an asteroid field," Red said very quickly. He then made a discrete hand motion to a bridge technician, gesturing for him to cut the transmission.

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

Gor's protests went unheeded, and seconds later the holo-screen shut off, turning back into a window that offered the occupants of the room a spectacular view of Capital City. Rather than enjoy the view, however, Gor merely frowned and crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. Hearing Arnor chuckle behind him, the violet-eyed Irken turned around and gave him another glare.

"Oh shut up!" he snapped, before storming out of the room.

Arnor watched his colleague leave, still chuckling slightly. Then, with a grin still on his face, he picked up a remote and set the holo-screen to its TV function – Blood-Sport was on in a few minutes.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Well, there's that filler chapter out of the way. I'm thinking there'll be maybe one more before Gor arrives on Earth and the major action begins. Hope you can all wait until then.**

**Next chapter: Zim and Dib both prepare for Gor's arrival. Meanwhile, Zim gets to have a little fun with his powers.**

**Read and review!**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: And here's the next chapter of "Evolution". Like I said last chapter, this will probably be the last filler before Gor arrives on Earth. So, I'm taking an opportunity to have a bit of fun here, before the major action starts. Hope you all enjoy.**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters belong to me. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_The High Skool, Two Days Later_

Zim took a deep breath to calm himself and focus his mind, before walking up the stairs and through the building's main entrance; after another two days of training, he was now certain that he had enough control of his telepathy that he could be in crowds without their thoughts overpowering him. And this was the perfect way to prove it.

Pushing open the doors, Zim braced himself as the thoughts of his fellow students filled his head with the familiar white noise. Before any of the thoughts could become coherent, however, Zim pushed back against them, reducing the noise to a buzzing at the edges of his mind.

Grinning slightly at his success, Zim made his way to his locker and quickly grabbed what books he would need for the day – at least, he thought he did. Considering he never really paid that much attention to any of his classes anyway, it didn't really matter which books he took with him, so he never bothered to check.

Shutting the locker door, Zim turned to see Dib closing his own locker down the hall. Dib looked up from the books he had just pulled out, and locked eyes with Zim. It only lasted a moment, but during that moment the Irken noticed something unexpected flash through Dib's eyes.

Fear.

Zim blinked in surprise as he watched his nemesis turn and quickly walk off down the hall. He had never seen Dib truly afraid before… well, not when he wasn't trapped in one of Zim's more ingenious plots, anyway. The organ harvesting and "Room With A Moose" incidents came to mind for that example, but right now the two of them were just in the Skool.

'Could he just be nervous about Jana and the GESS?' Zim thought, 'But no, that doesn't make sense. He wasn't this afraid of Jana before, and he doesn't know exactly what the GESS are, so what is he afraid of?'

Something didn't add up here, and Zim was going to figure it out. Calling upon his new speed, he nearly sprinted after Dib, being careful not to move too quickly and draw attention to himself. A few moments later he had caught up with Dib, and stepped in front of him just as he was about to round a corner. Yelping in surprise, the young human jumped and almost fell to the floor, but quickly composed himself.

"Well now, is it just my imagination or are you a little jumpy today?" Zim asked, lips curling up into a smirk.

Dib glared at his enemy in response, though Zim still saw a slight flicker of fear in his brown eyes.

"Jumpy?" Dib asked, a slight tremor in his voice. He attempted to laugh it off, but the laugh came out more like a croak. "Why would I be jumpy around _you,_ Zim?"

Zim's smirk grew, and he let out a chuckle. "I never said you were jumpy around _me,_ Dib. I just said that you were jumpy in general."

Dib grimaced as he realized his slipup. Before he could come up with an excuse, Zim leaned forward and looked him straight in the eye, the smirk having turned into a frown.

"Don't bother trying to lie to me, Dib-Monkey. I am a trained soldier; I know how to read my enemies. And you are afraid of me or something related to me."

At this point, Zim leaned back, his smirk returning.

"So please, don't be shy. Tell Zim what amazing feat of his has you so rattled."

Dib glared again as he asked, "Anyone ever tell you that your ego is the size of a gas giant?"

Zim returned the glare, but before the conversation/argument could continue, the bell rang for the next class. Glaring at each other for a few moments longer, the two mortal enemies grabbed their books and walked off to their respective first-period classes – though Zim did glance over his shoulder and direct a small telekinetic blast at Dib's legs, causing him to fall to the floor and scatter his books.

As Dib tried to figure out what had just happened to him, Zim laughed quietly to himself and ran off.

XXXXXXX

_The High Skool Cafeteria, A Few Hours Later_

Zim used his plastic fork to poke the food on his tray that the Skool's food service drones had said was "mashed potatoes". Now, Zim was still far from an expert on Earth food, but he was fairly certain that potatoes weren't supposed to move even _before_ they were mashed, let alone _after._ So why they were squirming now was completely beyond him.

Deciding to tread on the cautious side, Zim slid the tray away and turned his attention to elsewhere in the room. Dib sat at his usual spot, also prodding his food for signs of life. His sister sat next to him, not even bothering with the food before her and just playing her latest version of the GameSlave. While this was how the Membrane siblings usually looked during the lunch period, Dib seemed to be poking his food a little more listlessly than usual. His mind appeared to be elsewhere, and Zim had a feeling that it was important for him to know just what it was that his enemy was thinking.

'I wonder,' Zim thought absently, 'I know that I can tune out the thoughts of all around me, or hear them all at once. Perhaps if I can focus hard enough, I can pick the thoughts of one person out from a crowd?'

The telepathic Irken considered that for a few moments, before an evil grin appeared on his face.

'What am I saying? Of course I can. I am Zim – _nothing_ is beyond my reach!'

Looking directly at Dib, Zim narrowed his eyes and focused. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then the buzzing in Zim's mind built up again, the mental voices of the humans surrounding him shouting in his head for several unbearable seconds, before suddenly they all died down.

All but one.

'_**Stupid, stupid, stupid,**_' Dib was thinking – and judging by how tired his mental voice sounded, he'd been saying this to himself for a while.

'_**I can't let Zim know what it is that I'm afraid of. If he knows that I've found out what the GESS are – that he plans on unleashing an army of monsters – then he'll know that I've found a way to get through his security system. Then he'll destroy my spy cameras and I won't be able to keep an eye on him – and now is definitely **_**NOT**_** the time to not be able to see what Zim is planning. If I don't know what his strategy is for the GESS, I won't be able to plan a defense against them.**_'

By this point, Zim was gripping his fork so tightly it was biting into his gloved hands. He couldn't believe it – how in the name of Irk had Dib beaten his security systems? His computer had been installed with a Vortian-designed Electronic Security Field, the most advanced digital security system on the galactic market. It blocked all hacks and produced a jamming frequency that disabled all spying devices; it was supposed to be impenetrable… so how had Dib beaten it?

Before he could ponder it any more, more of Dib's thoughts made their way over to him.

'_**Oh, c'mon, what am I thinking? I'm Earth's only hope; I've got to stay positive. I've just got to get the recording to the leader of this inspection team that's coming. Once they see that Zim's planning on killing his own leaders, they'll deal with him. Hey, maybe they'll at least let me keep some of his lab stuff…**_'

_SNAP!_

The fork in Zim's hands was snapped in half as he was suddenly gripped by rage and a small but noticeable amount of fear.

'He knows,' Zim thought with snarl, as he pushed Dib's now rambling thoughts out of his head, 'He knows what I plan to do, and worse, he has _proof._ I don't know how much of what I said or when I said it that he's managed to record, but I cannot let him show _any _of it to the inspection team. Obviously I can take them if they try to apprehend me, but if the Tallest never hear from them again, they'll know I had something to do with it – I need them to lower their guards in order to kill them, damn it, not go on red alert. I need that recording destroyed!'

Jumping to his feet, Zim quickly strode out of the cafeteria, ignoring the cautious but inquisitive look Dib gave him as he left. Once in the hallway, Zim made his way to the nearest men's bathroom, and made sure it was completely empty. Once confirming that it was, he then locked himself in one of the stalls and activated the communicator in his PAK. Setting it to the frequency used by Jana's PAK, he was about to make a call when he suddenly paused.

He and Jana hadn't spoken to each other since the rather awkward-ending training session from two days previous. That was mostly Zim's fault – though he would never admit it, he had been rather embarrassed by the whole incident, and the computer's comments to him afterwards hadn't helped any. The truth was, he had never been _that_ close to any female of his own species before, least of all one of Jana's caliber. She was unquestionably loyal, brilliant, an amazing fighter, and as for her physical attributes…

'Well, it's not like she's _not_ attractive,' Zim mused, 'She is. One might even go so far as to say "beautiful". Those bright eyes, her lithe form, the way her antennae are curved only slightly instead of being all bunched up like Tak's were…'

The militantly trained part of Zim's mind mentally slapped the part that was currently fantasizing – an act that actually hurts when one has telepathic powers.

'Focus you idiot!' he screamed at himself, 'You don't have time for this! There is a threat to your power, one that you must eliminate _now!_'

Shaking himself off and swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, Zim activated the communicator.

"Zim to Jana," he spoke into the mouthpiece, "Come in."

There was silence for a few moments, before Jana's voice came through the communicator.

"_Yes, milord?_"

"I have a mission for you," Zim said, his voice hardening as he thought of what he needed his loyal servant for, "Dib somehow has found a way to breach the base security systems and spy on us."

"_What?! But how? The Electronic Security Field-"_

"Is apparently useless. I just read the Dib-Stink's mind; he knows exactly what the GESS are, he knows that we are planning to assassinate the Tallest, and worst of all, he has a recording of me admitting to it!"

"Etchuta_!_"

Zim blinked in surprise. He'd never heard Jana curse before; she was usually very calm and collected, rarely if ever showing anger. She must have been just as worried about this sudden turn of events as Zim himself was. Snapping out of his shock, he went back to giving orders.

"Head to Dib's house and destroy that recording. Don't report back until you have. Understood?"

"_Yes, sir. It shall be done._"

The communicator went dead as Jana hung up. Zim quickly retracted it back into his PAK and made his way towards the bathroom door. Just before he could open it, however, it slammed open and hit him right where his nose would be if he were human. Grunting in pain, the Irken clutched his face, where a small cut had been opened by the force of the impact. Glaring at the offending door, Zim felt his temper rise as Torque waltzed through, apparently not caring that he had just injured a fellow student.

"Move it, freak," Torque said, pushing Zim aside and heading towards one of the stalls. Zim watched him enter, glaring the whole time, before he began wiping the blood away from his wound… and paused as he realized that the wound had healed up completely.

'Strange,' he thought, 'My PAK shouldn't have healed it _that_ fast. Perhaps this is a new ability?'

He thought it over for a few moments, and decided to have the computer run a few more tests when he got back to the base. But first…

"No reason not to have a little fun," he muttered to himself with a grin. Closing the bathroom door completely, he locked it and then leaned against it, waiting for Torque to get out of the stall.

A few minutes later, the jock emerged from the stall, showing no sign of noticing Zim glaring at him. It was only after he was in the middle of washing his hands that Torque glanced up and saw Zim in the mirror.

"You still here?" he asked, "Beat it ya shrimp, before I knock your lights out."

"You know, Smacky," Zim said casually, not moving from his spot against the door, "I've been – what's the expression? Ah, yes – taking your crap, for a long time now. While the Dib-Monkey has been the biggest irritant in my life, you've run a close second, with your constant insults and occasional beatings. It's gotten to be quite annoying."

"Blah, blah, go cry about it," Torque sneered, "Now out of the way loser. I still have a few minutes to smoke outside before lunch ends."

Torque made his way towards the door, but Zim didn't move. Torque raised an eyebrow at that, but then cracked his knuckles.

"Well, I guess this is as good a way as any to vent my anger over that last F I got. Come here ya freak!"

Torque aimed a punch at Zim's head, but the Invader merely held up a hand and froze his attacker in place. Torque blinked in surprise, but before he could say anything Zim gestured with his fingers and sent the jock flying backwards. He hit the mirror hard, cracking it and eliciting a sharp yell of pain from the human.

"What the f-gah!" Torque started to exclaim, before Zim clenched his hand into a fist and began remotely crushing Torque's throat.

"Oh don't worry, Smacky," Zim said as he raised his other hand, which became engulfed in flames, "This will only hurt a _lot_."

Torque's choked screams were quickly drowned out by Zim's maniacal laughter as the mutant Irken went to work.

XXXXXXX

_The Membrane Household, A Little While Later_

Jana cursed under her breath as she searched through file after file on Dib's primitive computer. She'd been looking ever since she had broken into the house and made her way to Dib's room, and she had yet to find any sign of any recording.

"Where is it?" she hissed to herself, "Where did you hide it, you filthy little monkey?"

When her tenth complete look through every last byte of the computer's memory once again came up empty, the Shadow let out a scream of frustration, then picked up the computer itself and threw it against the wall. The machine smashed to pieces and fell to the floor, sparking for several seconds before going completely dead. Jana barely noticed, as she had begun tearing up the rest of the room.

'He must have downloaded the footage onto a disc and hidden it,' she thought, 'It must be in here somewhere.'

She began ripping drawers out of the desk the computer had been sitting on, and when that didn't reveal anything she took out her energy sword and began hacking the desk itself apart. When she still couldn't find anything, she stalked over to the dresser and repeated the process. When this also had no positive results, Jana yanked open the closet and began flinging out clothes and boxes of disused objects.

Still nothing.

"Grr, how hard is it to find one _fragging_ disc?!" Jana snarled, tugging at her antennae in frustration. She _had_ to find this recording; she could not let her master down. Not this time, when her failure meant leaving Zim's plans vulnerable to exposure.

Still trembling with anger, Jana grabbed the edge of the bed and flipped it over, sending it crashing to the ground. Just as she was about to leave to check the rest of the house, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. On the bottom of the overturned mattress, near one of the corners, was a lump… a lump just about the shape and size of an average computer disc.

"Clever little monkey," Jana said with a grin, "but not quite clever enough."

With a quick slash of a spider leg, the mattress was ripped open and Jana removed the disc. She held the disc in both hands, and took a moment to look at it, pondering over how such a simple object could be such a nuisance, and then with a simple flick of her wrists snapped it in half.

She then took a moment to look around the room that she had just trashed; scattered amongst the clothing and debris were old files Dib had stored about Zim, including pictures, notes, and diagrams of various Irken technologies. Why he had all this evidence just lying around, Jana had no idea – perhaps he'd tried showing it to other humans and they hadn't believed him, or maybe he was stockpiling it for one huge attempt at exposure. Jana didn't know, but whatever the reason, she couldn't afford to just leave all this evidence intact.

Grabbing a trash bin from the corner of the room, Jana began collecting the files and dumping them in. And just for good measure, she dropped the pieces of the disc in as well. She then set it in the middle of the room and reached into one of her bodysuit's subspace pockets, pulling out a palm-sized capsule. Opening it, she poured a small amount of dark fluid into the trash bin, making sure to soak as many of the files as she could, before closing the capsule and returning it to her pocket. She then reactivated her energy sword, and after lifting it in mock salute touched its tip to the contents of the trash bin, which promptly burst into flames.

Jana deactivated the sword and put it back on her belt, then took a few moments to watch the flames. After making sure that everything was burning completely, she turned on her heel and walked out the door, activating the communicator in her PAK as she did so.

XXXXXXX

_The High Skool, Same Time_

Zim carefully peered out at the hallway through the cracked-open doorway, and when he was sure that it was empty he casually stepped out, letting the door close behind him. He highly doubted anyone would find what was left of Torque anytime soon – Zim had flushed the smaller pieces down the toilet, and had stuffed the larger ones in a trashcan. It had been quite exhilarating, actually; how long had it been since he had killed an enemy with his bare hands? Not since basic training, and that had been most of a century ago. The nostalgia, combined with the possibilities presented by his new powers, had made the kill truly enjoyable.

'Can't wait to try some of those techniques on the Dib,' Zim thought with a smirk, 'But, I suppose I should wait until the GESS are unleashed first… don't want to draw any attention to myself before then.'

He was pulled from his musings when his PAK extended its communicator, which was beeping. Quickly checking that the hallway was still empty, he grabbed the communicator and activated it.

"Yes?" he asked.

"_It is done, master,_" Jana's voice answered, "_I have destroyed the recording, as well as the human's computer and all his hardcopy files on you. The mission is secure._"

"Excellent," Zim said, his earlier smirk widening into a full grin, "I don't suppose in the process you found out how the stink beast breached the ESF in the first place?"

"_I'm afraid not, milord. I turned the house upside down looking, but all I found were the remains of that Spittle Runner I destroyed. There is no way that could have helped him at all._"

Zim scowled, before saying, "No matter. We'll simply have to settle for destroying his spy cameras."

He paused for a moment, and then a genuine smile crossed his face.

"You've done well, my dear. I'll see you back at base."

Zim hung up and began walking towards his next class, then stopped dead in his tracks as he realized something.

"Did I just call her 'my dear'?" he asked out loud, cheeks darkening.

XXXXXXX

_The Membrane Household, A Few Hours Later_

Dib stared wide-eyed at the destruction visited upon his bedroom. His computer was smashed, his furniture was in pieces, his clothing and personal belongings were scattered around the room, and a trash bin was sitting in the middle of the room, burned black and filled with ashes. Carefully shifting through the ashes – after making sure that the flames were completely out – Dib confirmed his suspicions when he pulled out what could clearly be seen to be a mostly destroyed half of a computer disc.

"Jana," he muttered under his breath – he couldn't think of anyone else who could have done this much damage. And he had a pretty good idea of why, too.

"How the hell did she and Zim know about the recording?" he asked as he dropped the remains of the disc back into the trash bin.

Dib was pretty upset about what had happened to his room – he'd probably be sleeping on the living room sofa for a while – but he probably would have been even more upset if he hadn't taken precautions for something like this. In addition to the main copy of the disc hidden here in the house, he had also made a second copy, which he kept with his laptop aboard the escape pod, which he had moved to an old warehouse formerly used by his father's labs before it had been abandoned. There was no way he was going to leave his one sure shot of stopping Zim or his only viable piece of alien technology vulnerable to destruction, like he had with Tak's ship.

So he still had a chance of exposing Zim's conspiracy to kill the Tallest to the inspection team (and by extension, stopping his attempts to take over the planet); but that still left him with the problem he had brought up earlier:

How had Zim and Jana known about the recording?

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**A/N: Well, that about covers everything I needed to before Gor's arrival. I know Zim seems to be more vicious now than in the past, but I figure between the new chemicals in his bloodstream affecting his brain, and his previous psychosis, of course he's going to be different now. Hope it didn't scare any of you off.**

**Next chapter: Gor arrives… and the GESS awaken.**

**Read and review!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry for the late update, but I'm also working on a special for Halloween, which I hope you'll all read upon my posting of it. But anyway, I hope this chapter will be enough to make up for the wait, as the GESS are finally given their long awaited introduction. Read on!**

**Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters are mine. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

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_The High Skool, Three Days Later_

The weekend had proved to be surprising for both Zim and Dib.

The Invader discovered, after another series of tests run by his computer, that his fast healing was indeed another result of the accelerant affecting his DNA. The accelerant had reactivated his natural healing genes (which had also been deactivated by the Control Brains due to redundancy), as well as several related genes, vastly increasing his healing abilities. Combined with the already highly advanced healing factor provided by Zim's PAK, the computer theorized that his body's ability to heal itself would have been increased exponentially… essentially making him invincible.

Meanwhile, Dib tried to use the backdoor in Zim's Electronic Security Field to reactivate his spy cameras and keep an eye on his nemesis. However, when he attempted to hook up with Zim's computer, all he got from his cameras was static. This brought on intense confusion, until he found one that was still working – just as one of Jana's spider drones filled its vision, and seconds later it too went to static. This resulted in clearing up Dib's confusion, but replacing it with panic; he now had no way of tracking how Zim planned on unleashing the GESS. His only hope now was that his plan to expose Zim's plot to kill the Tallest would pay off, and that the other Irkens would deal with him themselves and leave Earth alone afterwards.

These thoughts and more passed through the minds of the two mortal enemies as they both arrived at the High Skool Monday morning. Zim strolled down the hallways, resisting with every step the urge to use his new powers to tear the building down around him. Dib, on the other hand, nervously chewed on his lips all day and jumped at every slight sound, half-expecting it to be a GESS released early and sent after him.

Zim noticed his adversary's anxiety throughout the day, but wasn't bothered by it, and didn't bother to read his thoughts to find out the cause. As far as he knew, Dib no longer had any way of stopping him; of course he'd be increasingly terrified as the day of the GESS's awakening approached… and Zim was going to enjoy every last minute of it.

Case in point: the two of them were currently in the cafeteria; Dib half-heartedly eating the slop handed out that day, while Zim watched from across the room. The mutant was completely ignoring the food on his tray – which appeared to be lamb chops served in sewage – and was focusing entirely on his archenemy. He slowly twirled his plastic fork in his fingers, gaze hardly wavering from the young human who had caused him so much misery over the course of the last six years of his life. Zim would make Dib pay for every moment his destiny had been delayed – and it seemed Dib knew that, from the nervous twitches he gave off as he stirred the food on his tray. Feeling the need to rub it in, Zim got to his feet and strode over to the young human's table.

Dib noticed Zim walking over and glared at him, the action being returned in kind. The Invader reached the table and leaned over, placing his hands against the edge to support himself as he stretched out to look Dib in the eye. Dib flinched slightly, but soon returned the glare in kind.

"Well now, don't you look nervous?" Zim asked mockingly, lips curled up into a sneer, "What's wrong? Has the fact that there's nothing you can do to stop me this time finally sunk in?"

Dib's glare increased. "You're _not_ going to win, Zim. I don't care what it takes, I'm going to stop you."

Zim chuckled darkly. "Your foolishness never ceases to amaze me, dirt-worm. Speaking of which, what was your big plan? Were you going to show the inspection team that I plan on assassinating the Tallest and hope that they would deal with me?"

"Something like that," Dib muttered, breaking eye contact for a moment as he pondered something. After a few seconds, he turned his gaze back to Zim's contact covered eyes.

"I always knew that you were a self-serving bastard, Zim, but killing your own leaders? That's low even for you."

Zim's eyes narrowed to slits. "I will not allow myself to be judged by a mere human. It is my destiny to rule the Empire, and if Irken blood has to be shed for that to happen, then so be it."

At this point he paused, most likely for dramatic effect, and then added, "Too bad your only proof of it has been destroyed, eh?"

Something Zim didn't recognize momentarily flashed through Dib's eyes, but before the Irken could process that the human spoke up.

"How'd you know about the recording?"

Zim merely grinned evilly. "Zim knows all, Earth-Monkey. I knew you were plotting against me, just as I know that after the GESS have been unleashed to destroy this world, I shall destroy you myself."

Dib raised an eyebrow, and a small smirk appeared on his face. "You know, I've noticed that you never bother to fight me on your own, without something backing you up. What, are you afraid that I'll beat you in a fair fight?"

_Schreech!_

Dib winced as Zim's claws dug several furrows into the metal tabletop. The Irken's lips were pulled back in a snarl, baring his zipper-like teeth as one of his eyes twitched. Dib, visibly unnerved, edged backwards in his seat as Zim began ranting.

"You filthy little monkey! How dare you insult my bravery! You think I'm afraid to fight you? I could fight you right here, right now, and I would win!"

At this point, Zim was starting to foam at the mouth, and the air around him started shimmering as he began to lose control of his pyrokinesis. He seemed to have realized this, as he suddenly took a few deep calming breaths, reasserting control over his power. After taking a few moments to fully calm down, and wipe his mouth off, Zim once again glared at Dib, who looked extremely disturbed.

"Like I was saying," Zim continued after a few seconds of silence, "I could kill you at anytime, human. However, I first want you to suffer; I want you to see all your efforts to stop me still end in my victory. Only then will I kill you."

Any further comments either of them could make were interrupted when a beeping noise emitted from Zim's PAK. Cursing under his breath, he gave Dib one last glare.

"Mark my words," he said, "This isn't finished."

He then turned on his heel and quickly marched out of the room, in order to answer his communicator in private. Dib gazed after him for a moment, before his curiosity over the incoming message overpowered his fear at Zim's display of hate, and he took off after the Invader.

He made sure to move as quietly as possible, but still fast enough to keep up with Zim. Seeing him turn around a corner at the end of the hall, Dib sped up, but paused as he reached the corner and peeked around it.

"This had better be important," Zim was saying into his communicator, "You know it's risky for me to receive calls at the Skool."

"_Apologies, master,_" Jana's voice came over the communication line, "_But this is urgent. The computer has detected an Irken frigate entering the solar system. It will reach Earth in approximately one hour._"

Zim's eyes widened. "The inspection team… _frag_! They're early! I'll be right there, we need to get ready."

With that said, Zim deactivated the communicator and took off down the hall. Dib, meanwhile, was frozen in shock. He'd been hoping to use the remaining time until the inspection team arrived to fine tune his plan – now he had no choice but to rush in with his proof and hope they didn't kill him before he could show it to them. He also took off down the hall (though he made sure to head towards a different exit than the one Zim was going to use) and tried to mentally prepare for what would probably be one of the most important confrontations of his life.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Hanger Room, An Hour Later_

Zim stood at attention, arms clasped behind his back, as he waited for the inspection team to arrive. GIR stood to his left, temporarily in Duty-Mode (though how long that would last was anyone's guess), while Minimoose floated just above the robot's head. As for Jana, she had been standing just behind Zim and slightly to his right a few moments earlier, but then had activated her cloaking field. Zim wasn't sure where she was at the moment, but he assumed that she was now in a strategic place to attack, should things go sour.

He was pulled from his musings when the computer announced the frigate's arrival and opened up the roof, allowing the ship to enter the hanger. It was a moderately sized ship, capable of comfortably transporting several passengers (as well as several more _un_comfortably), and yet still small enough to fit in the hanger… barely, Zim noticed with a frown, as his Voot was pushed off to the side by the larger bulk of the other ship.

After taking a few moments to completely settle in, the frigate fell silent, its engines deactivating as the roof closed above it. As soon as that was done, a panel slid away from the ship and lowered to the floor, becoming a ramp. Seconds later, a dozen members of the Elite Guard marched down the ramp, weapons at the ready, and fanned out into a semi-circle facing Zim and his minions. After they were all in position, Gor exited the ship, escorted by two more Guards.

"Third Tallest Gor," Zim greeted with a forced bow – he and Gor had attended the Academy together, and had absolutely despised each other ever since.

"Hello Zim," Gor replied, sounding about as happy to see Zim as Zim was to see him.

Zim cast a glance at the soldiers accompanying his violet-eyed counterpart. "A bit of overkill, don't you think? This is over _twice_ the number of escorts you'd ordinarily need for a routine inspection."

"Except this _isn't_ a routine inspection," Gor snarled, narrowing his eyes, "This is _you_ we're talking about Zim. Everything you ever create has a tendency to blow up in your face and do more damage to your allies than your enemies. I'm just making sure I'm protected."

Zim glared at Gor, trying very hard not to let his anger get the better of him. This was easy once he noticed that Gor was being forced to tilt his neck back slightly in order to look him in the eye; Zim was a good two inches taller than he was. Gor seemed to have realized this as well, as a frown formed on his face.

"How'd you get so tall, anyway?"

The Invader smirked, enjoying the envy he was causing.

"Just lucky, I guess," he said, before gesturing to the elevator, "Shall we?"

Gor glared, but then turned to the two Guards who had walked out of the ship with him.

"You two stay here and mind the ship," he ordered, before turning to the rest of the Guards, "the rest of you come with us."

With that settled, Zim walked towards the elevator, his robots and Gor close behind while the Guards marched after. Meanwhile, up in the cables that lined the ceiling, the air shimmered as Jana deactivated her cloaking field, relying on the dark material of her clothing and the shadows surrounding her perch to keep her hidden from the pair of Irkens remaining below her.

'Elite Guard my _c'horta_,' she thought with disdain, as she watched the two of them pull out a deck of cards to play the Irken version of poker, 'You would never see a Shadow slacking on the job like this.'

Shaking her head, Jana turned to look at the spider drone perched on the cable next to her; if it weren't for the faint glow of its optic, she wouldn't even know that it was there.

"You know what to do?" she whispered.

The drone nodded its body in confirmation.

"Then get to it."

The drone nodded once more, then scuttled off along the cable, eventually disappearing into the darkness in the corners of the room. Jana watched it go, and then momentarily turned her attention back to the Guards below her before reactivating her cloak and also taking her leave from the room.

XXXXXXX

_The GESS Lab, A Few Minutes Later_

Due to the size of the elevator, only three of the Guards could ride down with Zim and Gor, but the Third Tallest insisted that all of them be present when the GESS awoke. So, Zim, GIR, Minimoose, Gor and the three Guards were currently in the antechamber outside the GESS chamber while waiting for the rest of the Guard squadron to arrive.

"I never took you to be paranoid, Gor," Zim commented as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

Gor glared at him. "First of all, I'm not being paranoid, I'm being cautious. Secondly, you seem to be forgetting that you do not address me by name; you call me either by my title or 'sir'. Got it?"

GIR blinked in evident confusion, his red eyes fading to blue. "But Mastah's taller than you, Mr. Purple Man. Don't that mean he's better than you?"

"Squeak!" Minimoose added.

"Who asked you two pieces of scrap?!" Gor snarled.

Zim chuckled. "They have a point, _Gor_," he said, stressing the other Irken's name, "I am taller. _I_ should be telling _you_ what to do."

Gor's hands clenched into fists. "You may be taller, but I still outrank you, remember?"

The Invader merely smirked as he said, "For now. But bear in mind, Gor, that once my mission here is complete, the Control Brains will give me new rank worthy of my achieved height… and from the look of things, that will be above you."

Before Gor could respond to that, the elevator opened and the remaining Guards arrived. Zim glanced at them, and then moved away from the wall towards the lab entrance, his minions following.

"Come, let's get this formality over with."

Gor frowned at Zim taking the lead, but motioned for the Guards to follow them. The whole group marched through the doors into the GESS lab, and all of them but Zim (who'd obviously already seen it) and his robots (who'd either seen it or were too oblivious to care) froze at the sheer size of the room and the number of containers held within it.

"A-All of those," Gor stuttered, before swallowing and trying again, "All of those are GESS?"

"Each and every one." Zim smirked once again, "Impressed yet?"

Without waiting for an answer, he summoned a hover platform and stepped on, joined soon after by Gor and two of the Guards. The rest stayed on the main platform, GIR pulling out a rubber pig to keep himself occupied.

"Computer, take us to the most complete GESS and begin awakening procedures for it," Zim ordered, earning a confused look from Gor.

"Most complete?" he asked.

"You're early, remember?" Zim practically snapped, "A few more days and they would have been completely grown. Currently they're mostly somewhere in the high 90s of the percent range. So, among other things, they'll most likely not have quite as much muscle mass as they should, or be quite as agile as I designed them to be, but all in all they should still serve their purpose."

Gor barely had time to let that sink in before the hover platform came to a halt and descended to the floor in front of one of the GESS tubes. As they landed, the liquid within the tube began bubbling as it was drained out, being redirected through a network of tubes up into a chemical waste incinerator – Zim didn't want to take the risk of dumping the used genetic accelerant into the sewers and seeing what effect it had on the local wildlife. He'd learned his lesson about creating mutants that he _couldn't _control, thank you very much.

After the fluid was all drained away, there was a hiss of rushing air as the glass-like material of the tube split apart into pieces and slid into the ground, exposing the form within to the sight of the Irkens present. As the others stared in shock at the monstrosity before them, Zim merely grinned evilly as he closely studied his creation.

The body of the GESS was primarily that of a mountain gorilla, though it lacked the distinctive fur; this was because its skin was the tough hide of a rhinoceros, to make it less vulnerable to harm. The head was also slightly malformed, due to sporting a pair of ram horns – these were more for psychological effect than combat, as Zim knew enough about humans to know that they would, on a subconscious level, make the theological connection to demons, thus increasing their fear when facing the GESS.

The hands and feet barely qualified for the terms, being distorted versions of lion paws that had been altered so that the GESS could make use of them in addition to the claws. The feet had had extra mass added in order to give them the strength to hold the GESS up in a bipedal position at all times, while the digits in the hands had been extended and given extra joints so that they could be useful to the same extent as human fingers.

Rounding out the wholly unnatural appearance of the GESS was the pair of bat wings nestled on its head underneath the ram horns. Combined with a slight modification of the GESS's vocal cords that allowed it to emit high-pitched sounds, these ears gave the GESS a type of echolocation, which Zim just knew would come in handy when tracking enemies.

Gasping sounds brought Zim back to the present, and he watched as the GESS awoke and slowly pulled itself to its feet as it took its first breaths. Its body mass was irregularly shaped, with lumps or dents in various places, but Zim wasn't too surprised by that – as he'd explained to Gor, the GESS weren't completely grown yet, and were therefore bound to have some slight disfigurements. However, it didn't seem as though these deformities would be a deterrent to the GESS's combat abilities in any serious way.

After pulling itself upright, the GESS cast its curious gaze around the room, before its nearly human eyes locked onto Zim and the others. Said eyes then narrowed and its lips pulled back, revealing the teeth of a shark, as the predatory and defensive instincts encoded into its various DNA strands kicked in.

"RRRAAAWWWRRR!!!" the GESS roared, raising its claws as it charged towards its targets. Startled out of their shocked stupor by this action, the Elite Guard members fumbled with their weapons; however, Zim beat them to the punch.

"Stop," he ordered calmly, and the GESS froze mid-charge, lowering its arms and settling into a relaxed but slightly on-edge pose.

"…How'd you do that?" Gor asked, as he quickly stepped back, putting Zim and the Guards between him and the GESS.

Zim smirked. "As I explained to the Tallest, I have perfect control of the GESS. Of course, I suppose I should have mentioned _how_ I control them, eh?"

Once again not giving the Third Tallest a chance to speak, Zim clasped his hands behind his back and began slowly circling the stationary GESS.

"Despite what everyone thinks, Zim is no fool. I knew that creating an army of super soldiers is pointless if you don't have a means to control them; I've seen enough movies to show what happens when that is done. So I devised a means of insuring the GESS' loyalties – after each one's central nervous system was fully developed, I had the computer implant a control chip into their brains, which spreads nano-wires throughout the cerebral cortex. These allow the chips to control the GESS's every action, and the chips themselves are already preprogrammed with various orders that the GESS will follow without hesitation. For example…"

By this point, Zim had completely circled the GESS, and now came to a stop directly in front of it. Narrowing his eyes slightly and stiffening his shoulders, he coldly asked, "Whom do you serve?"

There was silence for a moment, and then the GESS slowly lowered itself to one knee. It then raised one clawed hand, clenched it into a fist, and placed it against its chest.

"Zim…" the GESS hissed out, its primitive vocal cords barely managing to form the word as it bowed its head in submissive respect.

The Invader grinned, turning to look at Gor once more, noticing that the violet-eyed Irken was giving him a suspicious glare.

"Something wrong Gor?" he asked.

"Let me see if I get this straight," Gor said slowly, "You've bred an entire army of super deadly monsters, that is loyal only to you – not to the _Tallest_, mind you, as they should be, but to _you._"

"But I am the Tallests' loyal servant," Zim said with an overly dramatic bow, using that to hide the hate on his face during that statement, "And since the GESS are loyal to me, then they are by extension loyal to the Tallest."

Gor frowned, but shrugged it off for the time being. He then glanced around the room, having noticed something of interest.

"Hey, how are you planning on getting the GESS out of here, anyway?" he asked, "Because in case you didn't notice, _genius_, the only way in or out of this room is the elevator, and I find it hard to believe that you plan on pulling off an invasion with three or four GESS at a time."

"You underestimate me, Gor," Zim sneered, "You see, ever since I began growing the GESS, I've been constructing a secret tunnel that leads from this chamber directly into the middle of the city."

"By which he means that _I've_ been constructing it," the computer commented. Zim gave the ceiling a glare before continuing.

"As I was saying, the tunnel leads from this chamber directly into the middle of the city. After awakening all of the GESS, I shall send them through the tunnel and unleash them onto the humans. This city shall be the first to fall, and from here the GESS will spread out, while I grow even more to aid in the slaughter. So, do I meet you standards of approval, _sir_?"

Gor glanced once again at the kneeling GESS, then at all of its slumbering brethren still contained in the tubes throughout the room. As much as he hated to admit it, Zim's plan _did_ seem pretty foolproof; there was no reason for him not to approve of the Armada's aid.

"You win, Zim," he muttered, "Take me to the communications room, and I'll tell the Tallest that it is safe for them to come."

Zim donned a Cheshire Cat smile. "Right this way," he said, gesturing to the hover platform.

As the group got on the platform, the GESS got up and started walking towards them.

"No. Stay," Zim ordered, "I'll return for you when the time comes."

The GESS didn't understand most of that, but it understood the order to stay, so it sat down on its haunches, obediently awaiting new instructions. Zim watched it out of the corner of his eye until it was out of the range of his sight, basking in the feeling of victory.

It was done. The Tallest would come, and the strength of the Armada combined with his own personal army would devastate this world. Then, he would eliminate the Tallest and take their place; his destiny would be secured, and the galaxy would be his to rule.

Forever.

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**A/N: I once again apologize for the wait, but I hope that the length of this chapter makes up for how long it took to post. And I hope that you all didn't mind all the exposition – we're nearing the climax of the story, so there will be plenty of action very, very, shortly.**

**Next chapter: Zim's plan seems to have succeeded, but Dib may have something to say about that.**

**Read and review!**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the wait everyone, but between a sudden relapse of writer's block and my work on my Halloween special, I haven't really been working on this chapter. But, I finally got around to it, so I hope you're all ready for some action.**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters belong to me. Everyone else is the property of Jhonen Vasquez.**

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_Zim's Base, Storage Chamber, Same Time_

With a grunt of exertion, Dib pushed the panel concealing his makeshift entrance out of the way, once again tumbling into the low-level storage room. Grumbling obscenities while rubbing his sore back, he quickly made his way towards the same ventilation shaft he had used during his previous break-in. The sound of scurrying metallic feet and the faint glow of violet optics informed him that there were several spider drones patrolling the vents.

"Guess Zim doesn't want any uninvited guests," Dib muttered, before reaching into the pockets of his trench coat. After making sure that the disc was still securely in place, he reached into a different pocket and pulled out a little something he'd scrapped together a few days previous, using parts of some household appliances and following a schematic he'd pulled from Zim's computer via the pod.

The files called it a signal disrupter bomb; apparently, it was designed to be a handheld version of the Electronic Security Field. Once activated, it would scramble any spying devices within a short radius. Dib was hoping that it would also work on the drones.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered. He then flipped a switch on the side of the disruptor, waiting for the light on the top to flicker to life before tossing the whole thing into the vent. After a few seconds, he poked his head in after it, and chuckled a bit.

A couple of drones were at the vent intersection, and the disruptor was apparently working – their optics were flickering like a bad TV reception, and they were stumbling around as if they were drunk. As Dib watched, they bumped into each other and knocked each other over, their legs kicking into the air without even the slightest attempt to pull them up.

"Well, that works too," Dib said with a smirk.

Pushing the disruptor and the drones aside, he began crawling through the vents towards the opening he'd made in the elevator shaft. As he'd hoped, the hole in that vent was still there, as was the cable he'd used as a rope – Zim and Jana had probably been too busy to look for it.

After taking a few calming breaths, Dib heaved himself out into the shaft, holding the cable securely in one hand. Once he was completely out of the vent and in the shaft, he began climbing down towards the GESS lab; he was certain that Zim would be down there showing off the GESS to the inspection team. And if not, then he could always summon the elevator and use it to get up to the main control room…

His train of thought was cut off when he heard the sound of something sliding up the shaft towards him. Glancing down, his eyes widened in shock as he realized that it was the _elevator_ that was heading straight towards him.

"Oh, son of a-"

XXXXXXX

_BANG!_

Zim, Gor, and the three Elite Guards with them looked up at the ceiling of the elevator as it hit something. GIR and Minimoose, on the other hand, couldn't seem to care less.

"Uh, what was that?" Gor asked, narrowing an eye in confusion.

Zim wasn't listening. He was too busy focusing his telepathy, to try and hear the thoughts of whoever or whatever was on top of the elevator. It was a strain to hear through a metal barrier like that, but if the intruder was who he thought it was, then it would be worth it.

'…_**Okay, that hurt,**_' Dib's mental voice flooded through Zim's head after a few moments, '_**Hope they didn't hear that.**_'

Zim's eyes narrowed in anger, and while everyone else was still staring at the ceiling, he discreetly aimed a telekinetic blast at the roof access panel.

The other Irkens jumped back in alarm as the access panel fell to the floor, followed shortly after by Dib. The young human's foot caught on the edge of the opening, leaving him dangling and looking upside down at the group of Irkens who were staring at him in surprise (or hate, in Zim's case).

"Um… hi?" he said lamely.

"Get him!" Zim snarled.

"No, wait! You don't understand!" Dib started to shout, but was cut off when the Guards grabbed him and roughly pulled him to the floor of the crowded elevator. Before he could even attempt to get back up, one of the Guards brought his electo-lance down on Dib's head.

The last thing Dib saw before he blacked out was Zim grinning evilly down at him.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Communications Room, Soon After_

'Ow. My head,' Dib thought as he regained consciousness.

As his vision returned, he found himself in the communications room of Zim's base, apparently sitting down. He tried to sit up, but a pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back down.

Looking around, he saw that he was flanked by two of the Elite Guard. He attempted to say something, to try and explain what was going on, but he stopped suddenly when he realized he couldn't open his mouth. Reaching up to touch his lips, he discovered that they were taped shut – he also noticed that his hands were cuffed together by some high-tech looking shackles.

"Oh good. You're awake."

Gaze snapping up from his hands, Dib glared as he saw Zim standing in front of him with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

"I wouldn't want you to miss the big moment," the Invader added, before turning on his heel and walking towards Gor, who was sitting at the actual communications console.

"Tell me again why we don't just kill the human?" Gor asked, "I mean, isn't he the one that always ruins your plans?"

"Precisely why I don't want him dead yet," Zim said with a shrug. Seeing Gor's confused expression, he rolled his eyes and said, "I want him to see my ultimate victory; I want him see all his efforts end in failure. Only _then_ will I kill him."

"That's what you said last time," the computer chimed in, "And we all remember how _well_ that went."

"Shut it," Zim snapped, "And open up communications with the _Massive._"

As the computer began sending out a signal, Dib slowly began moving his hands towards the pocket containing the disc. If they were going to be talking to the Tallest, now would be his only chance to expose Zim's coup plot and get rid of him once and for all. But he stopped with a wince as his scar suddenly began burning. He quickly rubbed at it to alleviate the pain, ignoring the glares he got from the Guards for moving.

'What is with this stupid scar?' he thought, 'Why does it keep burning?'

The pain faded after a few moments, but as it did a chill ran down Dib's spine, accompanied by a sudden realization. The only other time his scar had burned like that was right before Jana had attacked him in the GESS lab. Quickly scanning the room, he didn't see her anywhere, but considering whom he was talking about, that didn't mean much.

He'd heard stories of veterans whose war wounds ached as early warning signs of danger. It seemed his scar served the same purpose, except it was more specific, only warning him when Jana was near.

Dib was pulled from his thoughts when the computer announced that it was now connected to the _Massive._ Reminded of why he was here, he quickly but carefully resumed reaching for the disc.

"Third Tallest Gor reporting in, my Tallest," Gor said as Red and Purple appeared on the screen.

"Well," Red said as he looked Gor and Zim over, "I'm guessing, since you're not dead or dying, that Zim's plan actually worked for once?"

"As much as it pains me to admit it… yes," Gor muttered, giving Zim a dirty look out of the corner of his eye, "The GESS look pretty much unbeatable, and Zim actually has a way of controlling them. There's honestly no reason not to enforce his conquest of this planet."

"You couldn't make up a reason?" Purple whined. Red rolled his eyes and smacked his partner upside the head.

"What was that for?"

"For being an idiot," Red snapped, turning his attention back to the screen. Heaving a sigh, he focused on Zim.

"The Armada can be there within 72 hours. I guess you can let the GESS have some fun until then."

"With pleasure, my Tallest," Zim said with a bow, "That should be more than enough time to destroy this city and some of the surrounding area. In fact, I think-"

_Crash!_

Zim and Gor spun around to see that Dib had kicked one of the Guard's legs out from under him, sending him to the ground. The other Irken guarding him swung his electro-lance, but Dib ducked out of the way and elbowed him in the side, knocking him over. Before any of the other Guards scattered around the room could do anything, Dib flung his shackled hands forward, throwing the disc in his hand like a Frisbee. With amazing skill, the disc flew straight into a slot on one of the smaller screens attached to the console, causing the screen to go to static.

With a growl, Zim sprinted forward, reflexively calling on his enhanced speed without caring that he was revealing his new abilities. Before Dib could react, Zim had him pinned to the wall. Holding him there with one hand wrapped around his throat, Zim reached out with the other and ripped the tape off of Dib's lips. Ignoring the human's yelp of pain, the Invader pulled him close.

"What did you just do?" he hissed.

Dib merely smirked in response. "Look for yourself."

Zim was about to resort to telepathy, when suddenly he heard his own voice… coming from behind him.

"_And when the Tallest _do_ come, then we eliminate them_," he heard himself saying. Spinning around, he dropped Dib in shock as he saw the image being played out on the screen – his announcement to the computer of his plans to assassinate the Tallest.

"_Once those two buffoons are out of the way_," the recording continued, "_the path will be clear for me to ascend to the throne. I shall secure my destiny as leader of the Empire, and finally destroy this pathetic planet, all in one fell swoop_."

The recording stopped, then cycled back to the beginning and started to repeat. However, it didn't get a chance, as the screen was smashed in by a telekinetic blast. Everyone in the room jumped at that, looking back and forth between the screen and Zim's outstretched hand. But before anyone could comment on that, the Tallest spoke up.

"You treacherous little Defective," Red said, narrowing his eyes in anger, "You actually have the nerve to plot the assassination of the Almighty Tallest?"

Zim's lips pulled back in a snarl, as the air around him began to shimmer, much to everyone's confusion.

"'Almighty'? Are you joking?" he asked, "You two are pathetic. I'd be a better Tallest than you two _ever_ will be… I had hoped to do this quietly, give you two a quick death and ascend as soon as possible. Now it looks like we have to do this the hard way."

The Tallest stared at him like he had grown another head. Then they burst out laughing.

"T-The _hard_ way?" Purple asked through his laughs, "There isn't going to _be_ a hard way for you – or an easy one, either."

"That's right," Red said with a grin, "This is high treason. Which, in other words, means that we can finally get rid of you."

"Somebody get the popcorn! It's party time!" Purple shouted to the bridge crew.

Red rolled his eyes. "Gor, execute him. Now."

"With pleasure," Gor replied.

He gestured to two of the Guards, who lowered their lances and charged at Zim. However, before they got anywhere near him, he extended one hand; the shimmering air around him coalesced around his fingers, and seconds later a stream of fire shot forth from his fingertips. One of the Guards instinctively jumped out of the way, but the other was too shocked to move. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as he was set aflame and almost instantly charbroiled.

Gor jumped back in shock, while the Tallest stared agape and the other Guards scrambled into action. One jumped at Zim from behind, but he spun around and lifted his hand, halting the Guard in mid-air. As the Guard panicked and struggled against his invisible bonds, Zim waved his arm and sent the unfortunate Irken flying straight into the main communications screen. The last view the Tallest had of the room was the Guard's PAK, which smashed the screen and cut the communications line.

"H-How, di-did you do t-that?" Gor stammered as he scrambled backwards, stopping only when he hit the wall.

Zim bared his lips in a savage grin.

"Let's just say… I've learned a few new tricks."

No sooner had he said that, Zim made a few quick motions with his hands and telekinetically sent the chair in front of the console flying towards a group of the Guards. They scattered, and in the resulting chaos Dib managed to grab what looked like an electronic key device off of one of the Irkens guarding him. After a few moments of fumbling with his restrained hands, he managed to unlock the shackles binding him.

He could have run then. He probably should have; he'd done what he had set out to do, after all. Zim's assassination plot was exposed, and his own people were going to deal with him – Dib should just let them.

But he couldn't just leave, not with what he was seeing. Zim was displaying acts of what appeared to be telekinesis and pyrokinesis, which he never had before – and abilities like that did _not_ just show up over night. He didn't care if he was putting his life in danger; his natural curiosity wouldn't let this go.

While Dib was considering his next move, the remaining Guards surrounded Zim and aimed their weapons at him. Then they all charged, but none of them made any contact with their target. At the last moment, Zim jumped into the air – aided by a telekinetic boost – and launched himself away from the closing circle of elite soldiers. As they all crashed into each other, Zim landed gracefully on his hands several feet away, then back flipped onto his feet.

Gor watched all this with a slacked jaw from his spot at the wall. Noticing this, Zim let out a dry chuckle.

"Maybe now would be a good time to reconsider your loyalties, eh Gor?" he asked.

Gor quickly regained his composure and glared.

"What, you want me to agree to work for a Defective like you? Fat chance," the Third Tallest snarled, "I don't care how many of those freaky powers you've got, there's still only one of you."

Zim smirked.

"Wanna bet?" he asked, before turning his attention towards a spot behind the pile of Guards and simply saying, "Now."

Everyone stared in confusion, until one Guard let out a bloodcurdling scream as a blade of energy burst through his chest. The others clumped near the unfortunate soldier quickly scrambled away, staring in shock as his body hit the floor. As it did, Jana de-cloaked, pulling her energy sword free of the dead Irken's PAK and twirling it with a slight flourish. She'd wanted to join in the fight since it had started, but Zim had previously ordered her that if things went downhill to wait for his command to get involved. And now that the command had been given…

"Who the hell are you?" Gor asked, in shock of the female Irken's sudden appearance.

"Oh, her? Only the last person any of you are ever going to see alive," Zim said casually. Turning to look at Jana, he nodded briskly.

"Jana, kill them all."

The Shadow bowed her head slightly. "With pleasure, master."

Before anyone could blink, Jana dashed forward and with a swing of her sword took one Guard's head clean off. Even as the still twitching body collapsed, Jana spun around and grabbed the electro-lance another Guard had jabbed at her. Pulling on the lance and using its momentum to throw the Guard to the floor, she then brought her foot down on his neck so hard that it broke. To finish the job, she then stabbed the Guard's PAK with his own lance, frying it.

As the one-sided slaughter continued, Zim took a few moments to once again admire Jana's combat skills and felt the now familiar rush of heat that he felt whenever he watched her at her best. Shaking it off, he glanced in the corner and found that Gor was glued to his spot, frozen in shock as his best soldiers were picked off one by one.

Grinning in grim satisfaction, Zim then turned his attention to the other side of the room. Dib seemed to have decided now would be a good time to get the hell out of Dodge, as he was inching away from the fight and towards the elevator. However, when Zim's gaze met his he froze.

"Going somewhere?" Zim asked.

Dib's eyes frantically darted around the room, searching for any sort of weapon that he could use to get out of this mess. He finally spotted GIR standing not too far from him, helping himself to some candy while he watched Jana mercilessly kill her opponents. Quickly dashing over, Dib grabbed the little robot by the antenna and, without a second thought, threw him at his master.

Zim, too startled by the action to respond telekinetically, was hit directly in the chest and knocked over.

"Hi Mastah!" GIR shouted cheerfully from his spot on top of Zim.

Growling angrily, the mutant Irken swatted his robot off of himself, and jumped to his feet just in time to see the elevator doors slide shut with Dib inside. Running forward, Zim placed his arms in front of him and spread them apart, remotely prying the doors back open. Without even hesitating, he leapt into the shaft, extending his spider legs and using them to climb up after the elevator.

"Well, this was a complete disaster," the computer said.

"I don't remember programming you to point out the obvious," Zim snarled, before giving a sigh.

"But you're right, computer. Now we'll have to fight the Tallest for control of the Empire… heh, I suppose it's a good thing that we have our own army, isn't it?"

Zim's zipper-like teeth gleamed in the dim light of the shaft as he bared them in an evil grin.

"Activate the GESS. _All_ of them."

XXXXXXX

_The GESS Lab, Seconds Later_

The first GESS to awaken was still sitting in the same spot Zim had left it in. It merely sat there, not doing anything other than blinking and breathing, awaiting its master's new orders. It only showed signs of consciousness when suddenly there were multiple sounds of bubbling liquids and hissing air. Looking around, the GESS watched as the rows of tubes around it began opening, each one releasing another member of its artificial species into the sterile lab air.

Zim's army was unleashed…

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Sorry there wasn't as much action as I initially promised, but there'll be plenty more next chapter – and even more after that. There's a few more chapters left (though I'm not sure how many) and they'll all be very dramatic.**

**Next chapter: Dib learns the secret of Zim's new powers, and Gor makes his stand against Jana.**

**Read and review!**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry for the late update, but I kept getting sidetracked while trying to write this chapter. But I don't want to bore you with the details of my delay, so let's just get on with it.**

**And a quick warning, this chapter has a few bloody bits, with the Jana vs. Elite Guard fights. So if you're squeamish, you may want to skim over those parts.**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: The GESS and all other original characters belong to me. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_Zim's Base, Communications Room_

Jana leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding the spider legs aimed at her, and deployed her own while still in midair. Latching onto a ceiling cable with two of them, she aimed the other two and fired a large blast of energy at the Elite Guards below her. One was vaporized while attempting to jump away, while his partner was thrown clear across the room and into the wall. He attempted to pull himself up, but barely managed to get on his hands and knees before Jana's energy sword – flung from her spot on the ceiling – embedded itself in his head, nearly cleaving it in two.

The assassin dropped to the floor again, grinning wildly; she was in her element, and she was enjoying every minute of it. Seeing two more of the Guards standing nearby (one noticeably more nervous than the other), she extended her hand and wagged her fingers in the classical "come get me" motion. This simple act seemed to break what little resolve the nervous Guard had left, and he ran off screaming. Before he managed to go more than a foot, Jana pulled a disk out of one of her pockets and flung it at him; seconds after leaving her hand, the outer edge split into three pieces, each connected to the center by a thread of steel wire.

The high-tech bolo hit the retreating Guard right in the knees, wrapping around his legs and pulling them together. With his limbs locked in place, the poor Irken was sent flying, crashing hard on the metal floor. Jana grinned sadistically, then turned her attention back to the other Guard, who had been watching the whole exchange in wide-eyed shock.

"Next?" she asked sarcastically.

Yelling frantically, the Guard ran forward and began wildly swinging his lance at her. Jana calmly sidestepped each blow from the electrified tips of the weapon and used her arms to block its blunt sides; after a few moments of this stalemate she spun around in a complete circle, twirling her cloak as she did so. This simple action hid her movements from the attacking Guard, causing him to pause – it also had the added effect of hiding the spider leg she launched at him until it shot out and slashed across his face.

"GAH!" the Guard screeched, clutching at his mauled face. He was so distracted, therefore, that he was unable to block Jana's roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling to the floor, or the following series of blows to the head that nearly knocked him unconscious. As his vision blurred, the Guard noticed another one creeping up behind Jana, who was focused on the target at her feet.

The other Guard crept up on the green-eyed assassin, raising his lance in preparation to bring it down on her head. Jana didn't seem to notice as she drew her fist back… and at the last second shot it backwards, slamming it directly in the face of the Guard behind her. As he staggered back, Jana spun around and grabbed him by the collar; despite the fact that the Guard was at least fifty pounds heavier than her, Jana easily lifted him over her head, and then brought him down on the Guard she had been previously beating on. Before either of the two could reorient themselves, Jana launched her spider legs and skewered both of their PAKs.

Turning away from the dying Guards, Jana glanced over at the one she had tripped up before. As expected, he was attempting to cut himself free from the bolo, but his standard-issue knife wasn't doing any good. Noticing Jana smirking at him, he once again panicked – this time, he dropped the knife and activated his spider legs, scurrying away on them. Jana rushed after him, picking up his dropped knife as she did so. When she was only a foot or so away from her target, she leapt at him, her feet hitting him square between the shoulders, her sudden added weight causing the Guard's spider legs to give out.

The Guard only had time to grunt in surprise before Jana brought his own knife down on him, cutting into the base of his neck and severing his spine – along with the cords connecting his PAK to his brain. This was as effective a means of killing an Irken as destroying the PAK itself, as this method also stopped the PAK from controlling the body's life-support functions, leading to them shutting down.

Jumping away from her newest victim, Jana turned towards the only other Irkens in the room that were still alive – Gor and two of the so-called "Elite" Guard.

"Your Elite seem to be a little lacking, oh Tall One," Jana sneered as she slowly walked towards the Guard whose head was sporting her energy sword, "I'd suggest you upgrade your selection process… but then again, you won't be around for much longer, so why bother?"

Gor was sweating the equivalent of Niagara Falls, and was shaking so hard it was surprising that his armor wasn't falling off. The two remaining Guards placed themselves between him and Jana, crossing their lances in a desperate attempt to look intimidating; the only result of this action was Jana rolling her eyes.

"K-Kill her," Gor stammered as he quickly began backing away, "Kill her, kill her, kill her _now!!_"

The Guards extended their lances and dashed forward, but Jana was quicker. With one hand, she wrenched her energy sword free from the dead Guard's head and ran towards the two living ones, while with her free hand she pulled a long dagger out of a pocket of her cloak. The three of them grew closer and closer, and then at the last second Jana dropped to her knees, her momentum sending her sliding under the Guards' weapons and slipping between them. As the pair stopped and tried to turn around, the Shadow stabbed her weapons backwards, each one hitting a Guard in the PAK; the dagger sank in up to its hilt, and the energy sword burned all the way through the Guard's chest.

Leaving the dagger in place, Jana pulled the energy sword free with both hands and looked up in time to see Gor disappearing into a secondary elevator. Deactivating and pocketing her sword, she turned her attention to the ceiling.

"Just confirm this for me, computer," she said, "Does that elevator lead to the hanger?"

"Yes," the computer replied after a moment, shocked by the amount of carnage he had just seen a single Irken dish out, "Should I seal the hanger off?"

"Don't bother. He's not going anywhere," Jana said with a smirk. She then pressed a button on her wrist and sent a quick message to the spider drone she'd left in the hanger, telling it to initiate its mission. That done, Jana activated her cloaking field and disappeared from sight; seconds later, a vent on the upper wall was kicked in, betraying the path Jana was taking.

For a few moments, silence reigned in the room. Then, the Guard that had been knocked out when Zim threw him into the communications screen slowly pulled himself to his feet, clutching his head and groaning in pain. As his vision came back into focus, he gasped as he saw the bodies of his fellow Guards lying scattered around the room.

"Mother of Irk…" he muttered, as he began rapidly looking around the room, searching for any possible threat and a way out.

"Squeak!"

The Guard jumped, and turned around to find Minimoose floating before him with a stern look on his face… or at least, as stern as a floating stuffed moose could look. The Guard raised his antennae in confusion.

"Squeak!" Minimoose repeated.

"'Surrender or else'? To a _moose_? Yeah right," the Guard crossed his arms over his chest and glared, "Do your worst."

In response to this challenge, Minimoose's eyes started glowing red and his mouth opened – and out popped a laser cannon the size of an SUV. The soon-to-be-deceased Guard's eyes nearly popped out of his head as it began charging up.

"Oh, _vrik na_-"

XXXXXXX

_Main Elevator Shaft, Same Time_

Zim's spider legs latched onto the walls of the shaft as the shockwaves from a powerful explosion nearly knocked him loose. Shaking his head to clear away the stars that had formed in his vision when he had slammed headfirst into the wall, he looked down the shaft and saw smoke rising up from the main lab.

"Computer, what just happened?" he asked as he continued to climb.

"Minimoose just took out the last of Gor's Elite Guard contingent… and most of the communications room. Which _hurt_, by the way."

"Ask me if I care later," Zim said as he neared the top of the shaft, which was currently blocked by the elevator capsule, "I have business to take care of."

Without another word, Zim fired a telekinetic blast that punched a hole through the floor of the capsule. Launching himself upwards, the mutant Irken flew through the hole and landed in a crouch on the floor of the kitchen. Scanning the room visually didn't reveal anything, so he quickly reverted to telepathy.

"_**Come on, come on, why won't this stupid door open?!**_"

Smirking, Zim waltzed into the living room, where Dib was attempting to pry open the front door.

"Don't bother. I had the computer seal the base up before Gor arrived," Zim said, his smirk widening as Dib yelped and spun around. Before the human had a chance to do much of anything, Zim extended his hand; Dib shot through the air and slammed into Zim's hand, which closed around his throat.

"Let me guess," Zim continued, ignoring Dib's desperate gasps for breath, "You were going to escape through the front door, in order to hide your secret entrance to my base, right? Well, why don't you just tell me where that is, hmm?"

Dib kept his mouth shut, though he grinned slightly when Zim shot him a frustrated glare. It was at this point though, that something strange happened. Zim narrowed his eyes to slits, and as he did so Dib's vision began to swim, and the image of his makeshift entrance passed through his mind's eye. Then it was gone, his vision was back to normal, and Zim's face was covered in ammonia-based sweat. Despite that, the Irken was sporting a triumphant grin.

"Computer," he said, "There is a breach in the exterior wall of storage chamber 5. Seal it up."

As the computer gave the affirmative, Dib stared, the shock – combined with the vice-like grip on his throat – keeping him from shouting in surprise.

'How did he do that?'

"I forced the image from your mind," Zim said casually, and Dib's eyes widened in surprise. Noticing this, Zim chuckled before continuing.

"Yes, I can read your filthy mind, human. I've been able to for quite some time… among other things, as I'm sure you've noticed. Although, the whole 'pulling stuff from your head instead of just listening' thing is new – I suppose my powers are evolving. Go me."

"H-How?" Dib managed to choke out. This only made Zim smirk wider, and he pulled Dib closer, so that they were eye-to-eye.

"Why, Dib – I have _you_ to thank for that."

Dib merely stared in confusion, making Zim mock-frown.

"How quickly you Earth-slime forget things," he said as his lips curled into a smirk that would make the Grinch jealous, "Remember the last time you broke into my base, when we fought in the GESS lab? How you shattered that one container and washed me away in its chemicals? Well, those same chemicals seeped through my wounds and spread throughout my body, changing my DNA and awakening dormant genes, granting me these powers."

Dib's eyes went wider and wider during this explanation, as the realization of what he had inadvertently done hit him. The thought filtered through his mind, and was therefore picked up by Zim, who released a full-scale maniacal cackle as he heard it.

"That's right, Dib-Worm! This is all because of you! Your foolish attempts to stop me have only made me stronger. No longer am I merely Zim the Invader; very soon, I shall be Zim the God!"

The cackling continued for several minutes, during which time Dib desperately tried to claw his neck free from Zim's hand; unfortunately, the Irken's grip was too strong. Eventually, Zim stopped laughing and raised his free hand.

"So Dib-Human, let that be the last thing you ever know – that your own actions have sealed your species' fate. Now then, I believe it is time for you to, as the old expression goes-"

Zim's hand clenched into a claw, and then burst into flames before Dib's terrified eyes.

"-Burn, baby. _Burn._"

As the burning appendage inched towards his face, Dib lost all conscious control of his bodily actions, his limbs flailing wildly as his self-preservation instincts kicked in. Just as the outstretched fingers were about to make contact with his head, Dib's leg shot out in a vicious kick that came up right between Zim's legs.

The flames on Zim's hand suddenly went out, and the other hand went limp, dropping Dib to the floor. As he gratefully took in large breaths of air, Dib looked up and saw that Zim's eyes were bulging and his face was contorted in pain – alien or not, he was still male, and that was a _very_ sensitive spot that Dib had just slammed his boot into. After a few seconds, the pain finally seemed to fully hit him, and Zim fell to the floor, clutching himself.

"_FRAGGING ETCHUTA!!!_" Zim howled in pain, the air shimmering around him as he began to lose control of his powers, "_VRIK NA TISHANTI!!! KISGAREE SHOO-SHEN!!!_"

Dib half-considered kicking Zim while he was down, but that was before the couch and television suddenly flew through the air and the monkey painting on the wall burst into flames. Deciding that it would be a better idea to regroup elsewhere, Dib began to run towards the door, only to remember that it was sealed shut. As the burning picture fell to the floor, spreading the fire as it did so, Dib ran into the kitchen. Grabbing a chair from the table, he threw it as hard as he could, smashing the window open. Quickly clearing away as many of the glass shards as he could, Dib then crawled out through the broken portal as smoke began filling the room.

Falling out onto the lawn, Dib scrambled to his feet, ignoring the cuts on his hands from the many small pieces of glass that he hadn't had time to sweep away. As the nearest security gnome turned towards him, Dib dashed away; the energy beams just barely missed the young human, who jumped over the lawn fence and kept running as fast as he could.

"Got to get help," he muttered as he ran, "Got to do it fast, before that maniac sets the GESS free. Got to stop him, got to stop him…"

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Hanger Room, Several Minutes Earlier_

Gor stumbled out of the elevator as it was racked by the shockwaves of an explosion, startling the two Guards who had been left behind to mind his ship.

"Sir, are you alright?" one of them asked, only to be pushed aside as Gor ran up the ramp into the ship.

"Launch the ship! Get me out of here now!" the Third Tallest shouted.

"But what about the others?" the Guard asked, "We can't just leave them here."

"Yeah!" the other Guard agreed, "Keger owes me fifty monies!"

The first Guard rolled his eyes, but both of them then yelped in surprise and pain when Gor grabbed them by their antennae.

"The others are all dead! And if we don't leave right now, we will be too! Now get me out of here – that's an order!"

The two startled Guards were dropped to the floor, but quickly ran into the ship and towards the bridge; Gor went in after them, closing the ramp behind him. By the time he got to the bridge, the Guards were frantically typing away at the piloting consoles, quickly rushing through their pre-flight sequence as they prepared for launch.

"C'mon, c'mon," Gor snarled as he sat down in the command chair in the center of the bridge, "We need to get out of here."

"Don't worry, sir, we'll be in the air in a few seconds," the first Guard said.

"Powering up engines now," the second Guard added.

The bridge was filled with the humming sound of the engines flaring to life, but a few moments later the sound became irregular and then stopped altogether; this was followed by a jarring thump as the cruiser fell back down the few inches it had lifted off the floor.

"What just happened?!" Gor shouted as he pulled himself back into the chair he'd fallen out of.

"Something's wrong with the engines," the second Guard said, reading the information on his screen.

"Well then go fix them! We don't have time for this!"

Both Guards rushed out of the bridge and down the hall that lead to the engine room. The door slid open and the two of them ran in – only to stop short and stare at the sight that greeted them.

The reasons the engines weren't working was quite apparent – holes had been torn open in all the major components, wires had been ripped out, and vital circuitry had been smashed. With all that damage, the engines were completely useless, meaning that the occupants of the cruiser were now stuck on the planet. And the cause of this problem soon came into view, chattering and whistling as it climbed out of a hole in the side of one of the engine pods.

The spider drone's single optic stared at the shocked Irkens for a few moments while its simplistic A.I. assessed the situation. Jana had ordered it to sneak aboard the newly arrived ship, infiltrate its engine room, and await the signal to proceed with its further instructions. If and when that signal came, the drone was ordered to sabotage the ship's engines to prevent it from leaving, and it had done so… but there had been no orders about dealing with anyone who intruded on its work.

"What is that thing?" the first Guard finally spoke up.

"Who cares? It sabotaged the engines, so it's obviously a threat," the second Guard said as he pulled out a blaster, "And you know what we do to threats."

The drone knew what to do to threats, too. As soon as the Guard pointed his weapon at it, its self-defense protocols activated, and it launched itself at him. The Irken didn't even have time to realize that this was happening before the electrified tips of the drones legs dug into his face. Screeching in pain, he dropped his blaster and began blindly running around the room, vainly attempting to pry the drone off his face. His partner raised his own blaster to try and help, but was suddenly grabbed by the throat and slammed into the wall.

Jana grinned savagely as she applied more pressure to the Guard's throat, forcing his mouth open. She then reached into a cloak pocket and pulled out a plasma grenade; shoving it into the Guard's mouth, she hit the activation button and then threw the unfortunate Irken into his partner. She then jumped out of the room, and seconds later the grenade detonated, releasing a fireball that consumed both of the Guards, the drone, and most of the already damaged engine equipment.

Smirking at her handiwork, Jana took off down the hall towards the bridge. Activating her energy sword, she leapt through the doors before they had even fully opened, bringing the blade of her weapon up to block the blast of energy that was shot at her as she entered.

Gor was cowering behind his command chair, aiming a blaster and his spider legs at his assailant – he had heard the explosion and had quickly realized what was happening. He knew, of course, that he had no chance of winning if an entire unit of Elite Guards couldn't, but he didn't intend to go down without a fight. He charged up the points of his spider legs and fired them all simultaneously, but Jana leapt into the air, dodging the blasts and landing right next to her target.

Before Gor could turn, Jana brought her sword down and cut the legs in half. As the severed metallic limbs fell to the floor, Gor raised his blaster and attempted to shoot it point-blank – but before he could pull the trigger, Jana once again swiped her sword, taking Gor's arm off at the elbow.

"GGAARRHH!!" Gor screamed, collapsing to the floor and clutching the cauterized stump of his arm.

Jana sneered down at her fallen foe. "Pathetic."

Gor attempted to crawl away, but Jana placed a foot on his back, pinning him to the ground. As she pulled back her sword to deliver a finishing blow, Gor looked over his shoulder and gave her a pleading look.

"Whatever Zim's offering you… I'll double it," he choked out. Jana's antennae lifted in confusion for a moment, then realization dawned and she burst out laughing.

"You think that I'm being _paid_ for this?"

"If Zim isn't paying you… then why are you betraying the Tallest and siding with him?"

Jana bared her teeth in such a sadistic smile that for a moment, Gor thought he was looking at a demon.

"How can I be betraying them, if I was never loyal to them in the first place?"

Before Gor could even fully process that rhetorical question, Jana gave a mighty swing of her sword that took the Third Tallest's head clean off his shoulders. As the head rolled away, Jana gave the body one last kick for good measure. She then marched off of the bridge, deciding to report to Zim on her success.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Living Room, A Few Minutes Later_

Jana blinked in surprise as she entered the living room; all of the furniture was wrecked and the place was covered with flame-retardant foam. Zim was leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, groaning in pain and clutching the Irken equivalent of an icepack to his…

Jana blushed as she realized what part of her master's body she had just been staring at. Quickly averting her gaze to his face, she asked the question that had formed in her head when she entered the room.

"Master, what happened?"

"Dib," Zim hissed as he removed the icepack and carefully sat down on a more-or-less intact chair, "I had him in my grasp, but before I could kill him he kicked me in the… uh, you know…"

Zim trailed off and looked away as he felt his face heat up in embarrassment; he had too much pride to discuss problems with _that_ particular part of his anatomy with a female. Clearing his throat, he quickly steered the conversation towards something slightly less humiliating.

"Anyway, after I was, uh, wounded, I lost control of my powers – you can see the results of that around us. And while I was recovering, that little _shoo-sen_ escaped."

"Is there anything I can do, milord?" Jana asked, moving to stand next to him.

"Well, there is one thing," Zim muttered. He looked up to give Jana a glare, and the next thing she knew she was being telekinetically pinned to the wall.

"I'm curious," Zim continued, "How exactly did Dib manage to show Gor that recording if you destroyed it?"

"I-I don't know," Jana stuttered as she futilely attempted to pry herself off the wall, "I searched all over the human's home, but there were no other copies of the recording."

"Well obviously there _were_," Zim snapped as he got to his feet with a slight grimace of pain, "Now we have to do things the hard way. So bare this in mind – next time I tell you to do something, do it right!"

With that said, Zim stomped towards the elevator that lead to his bedroom, limping slightly as he went. Jana, meanwhile, slid to the floor, her eyes distant and filling with tears that threatened to spill down her face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Zim paused as he heard that, but forced himself not to turn around. He got in the elevator, and began descending into his inner sanctum.

"Not to point metaphorical fingers, sir," the computer said, "But it's your own fault any of this happened. If you had just killed Dib when you first caught him, your coup would still be on track. There's no reason to blame Jana."

"Shut up, computer. Just shut up," Zim said as he leaned against the wall of the elevator. Guilt had been building in him from the moment Jana had apologized; the last thing he needed was the computer adding to it.

"Are the GESS awake?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yes sir. And the tunnel should be complete in an hour or so."

"Good," Zim said with a nod, "Let me know when it is."

He'd have to deal with his own complicated feelings regarding Jana some other time. Right now, he had a planet to conquer.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: There you go, one of the longest chapters I've ever written – at the rate this is going, this story's going to be longer that "Reckoning" was.**

**Anyway, I once again apologize for the long wait, and hope that it was worth it.**

**Next chapter: Dib attempts to recruit help, as the GESS are unleashed on the city.**

**Read and review!**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: And with this new chapter of "Evolution", I hereby deliver that which you have all been waiting for – the GESS invasion of the city (and by extension, the planet). Also, a bit of angst on the Zim/Jana front, but that should be expected considering what happened with them last chapter.**

**Anyway, read on!**

**Disclaimer: Jana and the GESS are mine. Everything else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

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_Zim's Base, The GESS Lab, An Hour Later_

The first GESS that had been awakened had quickly established itself as the alpha of the group; the fact that several other GESS were now sporting slight limps and fresh scars was a tribute to this. Now, it stomped through its fellow living weapons, making its way towards the back of the chamber – they had received fresh orders via the control chips in their brains instructing them to prepare to leave through the tunnel that opened in the chamber's rear. And if the pack was leaving, its alpha had to be in the lead.

Pushing through the last row of GESS, the alpha found itself in front of the rear wall of the chamber, which was quite predictably marked with the Imperial Irken symbol. A nearly invisible line ran straight down the middle, marking where the door would slide open – and a few minutes later, it did just that.

With the rumbling of large gears, the two pieces of the wall moved away from each other, revealing the opening to the tunnel. A few seconds after it had completely opened, new orders were downloaded into the GESS' control chips and translated by the visual cortex into text messages that played across their sight. These messages were simple, in order to make it easy for the basic intelligences reading them to understand:

**GO.**

**KILL THE HUMANS.**

"Kill humans," the alpha-GESS repeated in a growl. It then threw its head back with a roar.

"RRRAAAWWWRRR!!!" it howled, before throwing itself onto all fours and bounding off down the tunnel. The rest of the GESS echoed the battle cry in a deafening chorus and followed their leader, rushing down the tunnel after him.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Main Control Room, Same Time_

Far above the departing GESS, their master watched them on his main computer monitor.

"And so it begins," Zim said with a smirk as the last few rows of GESS disappeared down the tunnel, "The beginning of the end of this world. It's beautiful, isn't it Jana?"

Silence answered his question.

"Jana?" he asked, turning around in his chair and finding that he was alone in the room.

"Computer, where's Jana?"

"She left the base a few minutes ago, master," the computer replied in a tone that suggested that it should have been obvious.

Zim blinked in surprise. "She left? What do you mean she left?"

"Just that master. She said she had personal matters to deal with, then she activated her cloaking field; my infrared scanners were able to track her past the base's outer perimeter, but after that I don't know where she went."

Zim sat in confused silence for several moments while he pondered this situation, then realization dawned and he slapped himself in the head.

"Oh, you over-zealous idiot," he muttered, "What are you trying to prove?"

"Sir?"

"It's because of what happened earlier, computer," Zim said with a sigh as he got to his feet, "I can only assume that because of what I said earlier, Jana feels she has to prove her worth to me… and I think I know where she's going in order to do so. I just don't get _why_ she'd suddenly act so irrationally."

"I can think of a good reason," the computer said with a smirk evident in its voice, "but you told me to never mention it again."

Zim flushed in embarrassment as he realized what the computer was talking about. Shaking it off, he walked towards the elevator, grabbing his disguise as he did so. However, just before he reached the elevator he paused, looking down at the wig and contacts in his hand. After a few seconds of thought, he closed his fist around said items and ignited them. A few moments after that, he opened his hand and dropped the ashes of his former disguise to the floor.

"Uh… why'd you do that?" the computer asked as Zim entered the repaired elevator capsule.

"Zim no longer needs to hide from the humans," the mutant Irken said with a grin, "It is time for them to behold the face of their destructor."

With that, the doors of the elevator closed and ascended to the surface… a surface that was even now being thrown into chaos by the GESS.

XXXXXXX

_Swollen Eyeball Headquarters, Downtown Business District, Several Minutes Earlier_

For a secret society, the Swollen Eyeball Network wasn't so secretive about its location. The former corporate building used by the Network's chief agents had a sign out front that clearly stated, "**SWOLLEN EYEBALL NETWORK HEADQUARTERS.**"

On the other hand, there_ was_ a smaller sign beneath the first one that read, "**IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF US, WE DON'T EXIST. IGNORE THE SIGN, AND FORGET YOU WERE EVER HERE.**"

Dib ignored the rather idiotic signs as he dashed through the front door and flashed his SEN ID at the large, bulky security guards sitting at the front desk in the building lobby. The guards blinked in surprise, but by the time they had registered what had happened, Dib was already in the elevator. Hitting the button for the top floor, he finally seemed to notice the cuts on his hands; the wounds had mostly stopped bleeding and had begun to scab over, but just to be on the safe side he pulled some bandages out of an emergency packet in his coat pocket and quickly wrapped them around his hands.

Just as he finished, the elevator doors opened. Sprinting out into the hall, Dib quickly came up to the doors leading to the boardroom that the leaders of the SEN used to meet in person. He didn't even bother knocking, but just threw the doors open and ran in. The assembled senior members looked up from their discussions and blinked in surprise as Dib entered, panting heavily.

"Agent Mothman? What are you doing here?" Agent Darkbooty asked from his spot at the head of the shadowed conference table.

"Ten bucks says it's about that green kid he's always yammering about," Agent Disembodied Head muttered to Agent Nessie, who nodded. Dib overheard that, and glared as he finished getting his breath back.

"Yes, it's about Zim, and this is serious! He's got a whole army of genetically engineered monsters, and he's about to release them on the city! We've got to get a defense organized, and fast, if we want to stop him!"

"And do you have _proof_ of your claims for once?" Darkbooty asked, the wrinkles on his aged face creasing as he frowned at the lower-ranking agent. Dib grimaced at that question and began to sheepishly rub the back of his neck, only to stop when he remembered his wounded hands.

"Uh, actually, my recording kinda got destroyed…"

"How convenient," Agent Tuna Ghost sarcastically commented, as she leaned back in her chair and put her booted feet up on the table.

Dib glared at the elder punk-dressed woman. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"All I'm saying is that whenever you try to convince us that this Zim kid is an alien – and that you're not insane – all of your evidence just _happens_ to get lost or destroyed, and we end up having to just take your word for it," Tuna Ghost replied with a shrug, "Remember that meeting you organized a few years ago? You got pretty much the whole Network together for that farce, in order to see all your supposed 'proof' that there was an alien among us – and then when you finally showed up, you were empty-handed!"

"I explained that then and I've explained it a million times since!" Dib snapped, "I lost the briefcase with all my evidence in it while going through my father's security in order to get him to sign the permission slip you guys needed for me to go to that meeting in the first place! Speaking of which, what kind of secret society needs permission slips for its members to attend meetings, anyway? That's just-"

Dib stopped as he realized what he was saying, then he threw his hands up in frustration as he shouted, "How'd you get me off topic like that?! I'm telling you, this city is about to be attacked by the most dangerous creatures I've ever seen, and this is just a start! Once Zim's done here, he'll spread out to the rest of the state, then the country, and then the rest of the planet!"

"Right… And then you take your medication," Nessie quipped, earning chuckles from Tuna Ghost and Disembodied Head. Darkbooty glared at his fellow agents, then turned back to Dib.

"Mothman, you know I've always supported you, out of the belief that you have great potential," the _de facto_ leader of the SEN started, "However, look at it from our perspective. You've been telling us about Zim and his supposed threat for _six years_ – that's over half a decade. And in all that time you have never brought us one shred of substantial evidence. I'm sorry, but we will not commit any Network resources to this without any proof on your part."

Before Dib could even begin to come up with an argument to that statement, the doors to the room were once again flung open; this time, they opened so forcibly that they slammed into the walls. This was so sudden that the occupants of the room jumped and the pigeon perched on Disembodied Head's shoulder flew into the air with an annoyed screech. Turning around, Dib saw that a security guard was the one who had entered the room, and he had apparently run in, since he was red-faced and panting for breath.

"Now what?" Tuna Ghost groaned as she pulled herself back into the chair she'd fallen out of.

"Sorry for the intrusion, ma'am," the guard apologized as he regained his breath, "but you and the others have to see this."

Without explaining what he was talking about, the guard picked a remote off the conference table and pointed it at the back of the room. The shadows there were dispersed as a large plasma-screen TV turned on, filling the room with its glow as the guard switched over to a news channel. The channel was currently showing the view from a floating news drone that was hovering in what appeared to be a higher-end residential district of the city. The otherwise pleasant looking area was currently packed with police cars and crowds of curious bystanders – however, it was what they were surrounding that caught the attention of the Swollen Eyeball agents.

A giant metal tube had burst up through the asphalt in the middle of the street, protruding several feet into the air at a 45-degree angle. The end of the tube was capped by a panel marked with an insignia that, out of all the viewers, only Dib recognized – the Imperial Irken symbol.

The police had cordoned off the area and were apparently trying to get the pedestrians to leave the scene, but that's when there was the hissing sound of atmospheres equalizing, and the panel at the end of the tube slid open, lowering to the ground to act as a crude ramp. For several seconds nothing happened, and one of the present police officers cautiously stepped forward to investigate.

And that was when the alpha-GESS came bounding out of the tube, landing on all fours not five feet away from the officer. Lifting its head, the GESS took a moment to sniff the fresh air and adjust its eyes to the natural light, and then its gaze fell on the man standing in front of it.

"Kill humans!" the alpha shouted, repeating its orders before acting on them; the officer only had a glimpse of its shark-teeth before they sank into his neck.

The crowd burst out in panicked screaming, which increased tenfold moments later when the rest of the GESS began pouring out of the tube. Just as the police began opening fire, the TV screen went to static. Darkbooty and the other senior agents turned, almost comically slow, to look at Dib, who looked both horrified and justified at the same time.

"Is that enough 'proof' for you?" he practically spat at Darkbooty as he regained his composure.

"That footage was taken three minutes ago," the guard said, apparently unaware of the argument that had been occurring prior to his arrival, "Those… _things_ are already spreading out of that area of the city. The police forces are having no luck in slowing them down."

A shocked silence filled the room as the agents registered that, but then Dib's eyes widened as he realized something else. Spinning around, he grabbed the larger man by the collar and pulled him down so they were face-to-face. The guard blinked in surprise, and then Dib started shaking him.

"Where was that happening, exactly?" he asked, "Where?!"

"Uh, uptown," the guard said, "East side, around Fifth and Sixty-Second."

Dib let go of the guard, and then pushed him out of the way as he moved towards the door.

"Hey, where're you going?!" Disembodied Head called after him.

"My house is only a couple of miles from where that happened," Dib said as he walked out of the room, "My father's probably still at his lab, but my sister's home by herself, and I've got to make sure she's safe."

"You can't leave!" Tuna Ghost shouted after him, "You're the only one who knows what's going on and how to fight back!"

"Oh, so _now_ you notice!" Dib spat over his shoulder as he entered the elevator.

For a few moments there was silence, then Nessie turned to Tuna Ghost and said, "You know, he's got a point. You've never been real supportive of him."

"_Me?!_" Tuna Ghost shouted indignantly, "What about you?! You said, not five minutes ago, that he should be medicated!"

"Yeah, and you _implied_ that he was insane. At least I was completely forthcoming about my opinion, you punk bi-"

"Enough, both of you!" Darkbooty shouted, "Mothman was right, we need to act _now!_ Contact all agents and tell them we have a code red, tell R&D we need those energy weapons they've been working on for the past few months, tell our contacts in the military and National Guard that we need reinforcements ASAP, and tell the Laundromat to be on standby!

"This is it people! What the Network's been preparing for, ever since it was founded back in '47. Time to show what we're made of!"

XXXXXXX

_Upper East Side, GESS Invasion Ground Zero, Same Time_

Officer Pambrey pumped his shotgun from behind the cover of his police cruiser, before jumping to his feet and unloading the weapon into the GESS heading right towards him. The genetic chimera stumbled slightly, but its tough hide either deflected or absorbed the buckshot that slammed into it, and it kept coming. Pambrey jumped out of the way just as the GESS lowered its head and charged into his car.

The ram horns tilted the car back onto two wheels, and the GESS followed up on that by grabbing the undercarriage and completely flipping the car over. The GESS then turned around to face Pambrey, who was attempting to get back on his feet. The GESS wasn't going to give him a chance to do so; but just as it prepared to jump at him, a group of SWAT troopers noticed it and opened fire from their position down the block. The GESS howled in pain as the large amount of rapidly fired projectiles from their submachine guns slammed into it.

A few of the bullets managed to penetrate the rhino hide, and the GESS gave a final shriek as several of its organs were shredded, then it collapsed to the ground. Pambrey turned to shout a thanks to the SWAT team – just in time to watch a group of GESS overrun their position. Pambrey shut his eyes and looked away as they were torn apart limb-by-limb.

"What the hell are these things?" he muttered as he quickly began searching his overturned car for any other weapon he could make use of. Unfortunately, he was out of shotgun shells, leaving him armed only with his service pistol and an emergency flare gun he found in the trunk.

"Damn, could this get any worse?" he hissed. He got his answer a moment later, when the car thumped from an impact. Looking up, Pambrey's eyes widened at the sight of the alpha-GESS perched atop his overturned vehicle. It looked at him, turning its head slightly so as to also look at its fallen comrade. It then turned back to fully face Pambrey, baring its teeth in a snarl.

With a mighty roar, the alpha-GESS ran forward to throw itself at the officer, who acted on instinct and fired the weapon in his hand, which happened to be the flare gun. The flare shot forward and slammed into the alpha's face just as it jumped off the car, causing it to shriek in pain and slam into the ground several feet away from its target. As it attempted to beat out the flames that were consuming its face, Pambrey decided to take the opportunity presented to him. Quickly pulling out his pistol, he got as close as he dared to the wounded monster and aimed at its nearly extinguished head, ignoring the high-pitched whine that it seemed to releasing along with its howl of pain.

However, just as he was about to shoot, the GESS's ears twitched, and it suddenly lashed out with one of its clawed hands. Despite the fact that it couldn't possibly see him, it struck Pambrey directly in the throat, sending him flying back into his own car. Pambrey clutched at his torn throat, attempting to stop the flow of blood, but it was futile.

The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was the blackened face of the alpha-GESS, its ruined eyes staring back at him. And then he was gone.

XXXXXXX

_Neighborhood Of The Membrane Household, Same Time_

Dib, panting for breath and with a stitch in his side, steadied himself against a lamppost as he came up to his street. The area looked mostly untouched, filling Dib with relief… until he got to his house.

Dib's face paled as he saw that the front door had been broken down, and the part still attached to its hinges was splintered by claw marks. Just as he began to run forward, there was a howl from inside and a blood-covered GESS came flying out of the door to land on the doorstep. Dib stopped short and started thinking of ways to defend himself, when he noticed that most of the blood covering the GESS seemed to be coming from wounds on its body. The GESS also didn't seem to notice Dib; instead, it looked over its shoulder back into the house. Whatever it saw must have scared it, because it howled again and started trying to crawl away, only for something to grab it and drag it back into the house.

For a few moments, Dib cringed as he listened to the sounds of the GESS experiencing a painful death. Having a pretty good idea of what was causing it, Dib waited until the sounds died down before entering the house. As he thought, Gaz calmly sat on the couch, surrounded by several dead GESS and her security dolls, which were covered in gore.

"Uh… are you alright?" Dib asked, stepping over one of the still-twitching GESS to get as close to his sister as the dolls would let him.

"Let me guess," Gaz asked, without answering Dib's question, "Zim's got something to do with the dead freaks on the floor, right?"

"Yeah, and he's got a whole army of them running loose in the city. I seriously think this time he might actually win, and – hey! Where are you going?"

As Dib had begun to rant, Gaz had grabbed her coat and GameSlave, and was now heading out the door with her dolls following. When Dib asked his question, Gaz turned around and gave her brother a dull look.

"Where else? Dad's main lab has that bunker in the basement; if that green idiot's finally come up with a plan that _works,_ that's probably the safest place in the city to be."

"Good idea," Dib said, heading towards the basement stairs, "I'm going to grab some stuff from his home lab, and then we can going. Maybe Dad and I can…"

Dib trailed off as he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Gaz had already left.

"Of course," he muttered, before heading down the stairs. Once in his father's home lab, he grabbed a box and started stuffing it with any and all equipment that looked like it might come in handy. He then hurried back up the stairs, but halfway up he froze as a familiar burning sensation appeared on the side of his face.

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Jana's voice responded, before her invisible fist slammed into his chin.

The box of equipment fell out of Dib's hands as he went flying down the stairs and landed in a heap. He quickly attempted to get back to his feet, but Jana brought her foot down on his chest, pinning him in place. As Dib tried to pry her off of him, she de-cloaked, and he blinked in surprise as he got a good look at her.

Jana's normally calm demeanor seemed to have disappeared; she was shaking with pent-up emotion, and the edges of her eyes were puffy, as if she had been crying. In fact, Dib could faintly make out a pair of trail marks down her cheeks, still glistening slightly.

"I'm going to make you suffer," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "I've done everything my master has ever asked of me, without even hesitating… and now he hates me. He _hates_ me, and it's all because of _you!_ And for that, human, you will _PAY!!!_"

With that, Jana pulled out her energy sword and ignited it. And then, with a savage cry, she brought it down, aimed right at Dib's head…

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Hope you all like the cliffhanger, and the GESS invasion scenes – I wanted to put more detail into them, but I had trouble with that, so I hope I put in enough. Also, what did everyone think of my interpretation of the SEN?**

**Next chapter: Zim intervenes in Jana's assassination attempt… so that he can pull it off himself.**

**Read, review, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!**


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: Quick announcement before we get this chapter started – with this update, "Evolution of Evil" is now longer than "Reckoning", making it the longest story that I've ever written. So, a quick thanks to everyone who's been with me through this project. Also, sorry for the late update, but schoolwork cropped up on me.**

**Anyway, this chapter will include some more action and a little more fluff, which I'm sure you're all looking forward to.**

**Therefore, read on!**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Dib's life flashed before his eyes as Jana's energy sword descended towards him. He instinctively shut his eyes just before it reached him, not expecting to ever open them again… but then after a few seconds, he realized he wasn't dead. He slowly opened his eyes, and flinched at the sight of the blade hovering mere inches above his face. Managing to look past the glare of the concentrated energy, he blinked in surprise at what he saw.

Jana's face was scrunched up in effort, and the hilt of the sword was shaking in her hands as she pushed down on it – something was holding the sword in place, keeping it from making contact with its target. Just as the shock cleared up enough for everything to start to piece together in his head, however, Dib suddenly went sliding across the floor and slammed into the wall. Stars danced in his vision, but that didn't block out the sight of Zim descending the basement stairs, one hand extended palm out towards Dib, and the other curled into a fist as it was aimed towards Jana's sword.

"Jana," he said slowly, releasing his hold on her sword but keeping Dib pinned to the wall, "He is _mine _to kill. I would think that you of all people would know that. So tell me, what do you think you're doing?"

The usually composed assassin stumbled with her sword as she quickly deactivated and pocketed it.

"M-Master," she stammered, a slight hitch in her voice, "I-I can explain this. I-"

Zim held up his free hand to cut her off. "Wait upstairs. When I am finished down here, we will talk about this."

"Yes, milord," Jana said softly, before quickly heading back up the stairs. Zim watched her go, once again feeling the guilt rise up in him – he'd noticed the tear marks on her cheeks, and considering how controlled she usually was, she _had _to be upset if she was actually _crying_.

"Having trouble with your girlfriend?" Dib asked – just because he couldn't move at the moment didn't mean that he couldn't get a dig in at his nemesis.

The quip had the desired effect, as Zim turned back to Dib with a glare and darkened cheeks. Moments later, Dib was regretting it, as he was sent flying into a desk in the corner of the lab. Groaning in pain, he looked up to see the infuriated Irken sneering at him.

"I am _really_ going to enjoy watching you die, you annoying monkey," Zim hissed, raising one hand and slightly clenching it.

Dib gasped as a vice formed around his throat and he lifted several feet into the air. His legs kicked uselessly at the air as he was dragged towards Zim, but then he stopped as he remembered the last time he was in a situation like this. If he could just get close enough… Dib raised an eyebrow as he suddenly stopped in midair while still several feet away from Zim. In response, Zim merely wagged a finger at him.

"Oh, no," he said, "I'm not making the mistake of letting you get close enough to do _that_ again."

"How did you… oh, right. Telepathy," Dib groaned as he continued to hover in the air, "So, what now Zim?"

"Now, I kill you slowly. And then I feed what's left to _him_," Zim said, pointing over his shoulder at the stairs.

Dib followed the pointing finger, and paled as the lumbering figure of the alpha-GESS descended the stairs, having been summoned by Zim via its control chip. Dib didn't know this, of course, but at the moment he didn't care what it was doing there; he was too distracted by the disfigurement the GESS was now sporting on its face.

The GESS were never a pretty sight to begin with, but the alpha's face was now a ruined mess. The entire right half was scorched black, and in several places the skin had been burned away completely, particularly around the eye – the whole orb was exposed and misted over, showing that it was blinded. The other eye, however, was still quite active and glaring at Dib as it stomped down the stairs; its loss of depth perception obviously wasn't affecting it any. Dib also noticed a high-pitched whine seemed to be emitting from its partially opened mouth.

"Echolocation," Zim said, answering the question that Dib hadn't verbally asked, "A little result of the bat DNA I slipped into its genome. Impressed?"

"Congratulations, Dr. Frankenstein," Dib said sarcastically, "And what's your big plan for when they turn on you?"

Zim merely stared during the reference, but as that last comment sank in, he sneered.

"They will _not_ turn against me, foolish human," he snapped, "They have been programmed to obey my every command, and the chips implanted in their brains enforce that. Zim learns from his mistakes; unlike past creations, the GESS will remain under my control. And with them at my command, I will wipe your species out of existence, and then I will hunt the Tallest down and take my rightful place as their successor. And you, Dib-Worm, shall be the first obstacle that I personally eliminate."

"I've heard this speech before Zim," Dib said, carefully watching the stationary GESS, "And you always lose anyway. What makes this time different?"

Zim merely laughed as he raised his other hand.

"This," he said, waving his hand and sending Dib flying into the wall. Stars once again danced in his vision, and before he could even reorient himself he was sent flying into the opposite wall, and then a containment cell in the corner of the room, followed by the ceiling and finally a stack of crates off to one side. All the while, Zim continued to laugh, making only the slightest of gestures with his hands to send Dib flying around the room. Once again waving the fingers on one hand, he sent Dib towards one of the desks in the middle of the room. Dib hit it hard and was sent flying over it to land on the floor and out of Zim's sight.

"Oops," Zim said with a chuckle, "Tilt."

He calmly walked over to the desk, the alpha-GESS trailing behind him at a distance. Just as he neared the desk, Dib jumped up and slashed at him with a scalpel – which he'd grabbed from one of the overturned boxes of equipment – only for it to be telekinetically knocked out of his hands. Zim leered at him, and in response he dashed over to another desk, desperately grabbed a flask of some chemical, and threw it at the mutant Irken. However, Zim merely tossed a fireball at the flask, shattering the glass and vaporizing its contents.

"Oh, _please_," Zim said with an eye roll, before waving his arm and slamming Dib into the back wall of the lab, his arm slamming into something that was protruding from that wall.

"You think that you can stop me? My new powers let me look into your mind, to read your every thought; I know your every move before you make it."

While Zim ranted, he lost his concentration on the very telepathy he was bragging about, and therefore wasn't reading Dib's mind when the human realized what it was his arm had slammed into.

"You cannot win," Zim continued, "Your mind is an open book to me."

Dib's lips pulled up into a smirk, causing Zim to narrow an eye in confusion.

"Then you should learn how to read," Dib said, before slamming his arm back into the box behind him, breaking the glass panel and hitting the button contained within the box. Zim merely stared, but then a whirring sound drew his attention to the ceiling… just as the emergency sprinkler system activated.

Zim let out a shriek that could rival any made by the GESS as he was drenched head-to-toe in water that went right to work burning through his skin. The alpha watched, completely baffled, as its master fell to the ground, his skin smoking, and Dib ran from the wall he had been previously pinned to. The alpha swiped at him as he rushed past, but Dib ducked under the deformed lion paw and kept running towards the stairs.

"Kill him!" Zim shouted. The GESS roared in acknowledgement, emitting another echolocation blast as it did so in order to guide its way, and then leapt onto all fours as it bounded up the stairs after Dib.

Dib panted for breath as he reached the top of the stairs, but he didn't dare stop – the GESS would be right behind him, which meant he needed to get the hell out of dodge. But as he reached the ground floor of the house, he was reminded of his other problem.

Jana, who looked liked she'd been trying hard not to cry again, was sitting on the couch in the living room. Hearing Dib come up the stairs, she looked up, and as soon as she saw him her teary eyes hardened. Whipping out her energy sword, she leapt at him; however, she never got a chance to attack him, as at that moment the alpha-GESS burst through the basement door. The beast headed straight towards Dib, inadvertently placing itself in Jana's path.

Cursing, Jana twisted her body in midair, altering her course and just barely managing to miss the GESS. However, her leg scraped across one of its horns, which opened a small gash. This caused Jana to curse even more, as she lost her focus and crashed into a wall. This sequence of events also served to momentarily distract the GESS, making it pause long enough for Dib to run around it and dash out the door.

Ignoring the disoriented Irken female who was slowly pulling herself to her feet, the alpha-GESS once again ran after Dib, its echolocation guiding it past the furniture in its way. Before the young human could get very far, the GESS launched itself out the door, soaring through the air and landing in front of him. Turning around, it fixed its good eye on him, its lips pulled back to fully reveal its shark teeth.

"Oh, crap," Dib said as he realized his predicament – he couldn't run back into the house, as Jana and a surely recovered by now Zim would be waiting for him. Meanwhile, he also couldn't run forward, since the alpha was blocking his direct path away from the house, which was actually the _only_ path away from the house, as the rest was blocked by the house's high-voltage security fence…

Dib's eyes widened as an idea sparked in his mind, gaze quickly moving from the still soaking wet GESS – which was slowly getting in position to pounce – to the fence. The idea was desperate, but he'd noticed that lately all of his plans to stop Zim were desperate, and they usually worked.

"RAWR!" the GESS roared, pulling Dib from his thoughts as it leapt at him. Dib rolled out of the way, just barely avoiding the sharp claws and teeth aimed at him, and quickly minimizing the distance between himself and the fence as much as he could without electrocuting himself. The GESS turned around to once again face Dib, but this time the human faced the abomination with steel in his eyes.

"Come and get me, you son of a bitch," he muttered, staring the GESS down.

The GESS roared and threw itself at Dib again; Dib waited until the last second to roll out of the way, moving only when the GESS was close enough for him to see the nerves connecting to its damaged eye. The delay cost him – one of the GESS's claws ripped through his trench coat and slashed him across his shoulder.

"GAH!" Dib screamed in pain, but it was nothing compared to the howl of agony that the alpha-GESS unleashed as it slammed into the security fence and became entangled in it. The water still coating its body conducted the electricity, allowing it to penetrate even the thick rhino hide the GESS wore as skin.

Dib clutched his bleeding shoulder and staggered to his feet, watching as the alpha was lit up like a Christmas tree. Bolts of electricity danced between its outstretched limbs and its torso, between the jaws that were parted in a howl of pain, and between the ram horns on its head. One particularly large bolt arced between the horns and then suddenly slammed into the GESS's skull, burning through all the way and hitting the control chip in its brain. The alien metal further conducted the electricity, which spread along the nano-wires into every corner of the GESS's brain, frying everything it came into contact with. With a final screech, the alpha-GESS fell to the ground, ending a life that never should have begun in the first place.

And, naturally, that was when several army jeeps came roaring down the street and pulled up in front of Dib's house.

"Of course," Dib groaned, "_Now_ the cavalry shows up."

The soldiers jumped out of the jeeps, several aiming their weapons at the dead GESS, while others fanned out along the street to keep an eye out for any live ones. A blond man in an all-black SEN uniform hopped out as well, carrying what looked like a giant hairdryer, of all things. That agent and a soldier with a sergeant's stripes then walked over to where Dib was still struggling to stay on his feet.

"This kid's the one we're supposed to hook up with?" the sergeant asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't underestimate him," the agent replied, "He's the one that figured out these things were going to attack."

"I can also hear you, you know," Dib said, carefully pulling his hand away from his shoulder; the wound hurt like Hell, but it was pretty shallow, so it was already starting to heal. Glancing at the device the agent was carrying, he raised an eyebrow.

"What the heck is that thing?" he asked.

"Prototype energy weapon," the agent replied, adjusting it in his hands, "Agent Nessie and his department have been working on this design for months, but this is the first chance we're getting to try them out."

"Oh goody, we get the toy that we're not sure will work," the sergeant said with an eye roll, "Now, where's this so-called 'alien' you paranormal freaks say is responsible for all the crap going down in the city?"

Before Dib or the agent could respond, the front of the Membrane house exploded outwards, and the dust quickly settled to reveal Zim, healed from his water burns and with both of his hands aflame. Narrowing his maroon eyes, Zim sneered at the soldiers who were staring at him in shock.

"Oh, you just _had_ to ask…" Dib groaned.

The soldiers standing nearest Zim panicked and opened fire; however, this turned out to be a pointless action, as in a move straight out of a vaguely-good sci-fi movie that was turned into a terrible franchise, Zim held out one hand and froze the hail of bullets in mid-air. As the soldiers realized their weapons weren't doing any good, they ceased fire – and Zim then waved his arm, sending the bullets flying back into the soldiers who had fired them.

Dib winced and looked away as the soldiers were shredded. He then yelped as the sergeant knocked him to the ground, making his wounded shoulder scream in protest.

"Stay down!" the sergeant yelled, pulling out his sidearm as he did so and firing on the Invader who had just killed a large chunk of his troops. The still-living ones in the street joined him in the counter-attack, but Zim called on his enhanced agility in addition to the telekinesis to dodge and deflect every bullet.

Dib crawled away from the sergeant and towards the nearest jeep, where the agent was crouching with the energy weapon.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, "Use the damn thing!"

"I'm trying!" the agent snapped, while pushing buttons and flicking switches on the side of the weapon, "Like I said, this is the first time we're using this thing – I'm still trying to figure out how to turn it on!"

"Oh, for crying out-" Dib began to say, but cut himself off when a familiar burning sensation entered the side of his face. Paling, he looked up to see Jana dashing through the battlefield towards him, murder on her face as she cut down the soldiers in her way almost absentmindedly.

"Not to push, or anything," Dib said, "But we need to get that thing working NOW!"

"Got it!" the agent said, holding up the now-vibrating weapon and pointing it in Jana's direction. Seconds later, a blast of sickly-green energy shot out of the end of the weapon, heading straight towards the charging assassin. Jana's eyes widened, and she jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the shot, which impacted the ground a few feet away. The explosion created a crater in the lawn, raining dirt down on all of the combatants and distracting them momentarily. Unfortunately for the soldiers, Zim recovered from his surprise first and stretched his burning hands out, releasing torrents of flame at his enemies.

Dib and the agent cursed simultaneously as most of the remaining soldiers were deep-fried. The agent quickly powered up the weapon again and aimed it at Zim this time; unfortunately, before he could fire, Jana landed next to the weapon and quickly cut it in half. Before either of the humans could fully register this, two spider legs shot out of Jana's PAK and pinned Dib and the other agent to the jeep, causing Dib's wound to reopen in the process and eliciting a cry of pain from the younger human.

"Impressive device," Jana said, "Shame it won't do you any good now. As soon as Lord Zim is done with these toy soldiers, he is going to tear you two fools apart."

Dib glanced past Jana, and his eyes widened in surprise before a wicked smirk appeared on his face, much to Jana's confusion.

"Wanna bet?" he asked, pointing behind her.

Jana carefully kept the spider legs pressed against Dib and the agent as she turned to look over her shoulder. Zim was tossing the remaining soldiers around like rag dolls, and was apparently enjoying himself… so much so, in fact, that he didn't seem to notice the sergeant – clutching a PAK leg wound on his stomach – sneaking up behind him. The sergeant was shakily holding a submachine gun, and was slowly bringing it to bear on Zim's back – and his PAK. Jana's blood froze in her veins.

"No," she whispered.

Completely forgetting about her prisoners, Jana dashed towards her master. The only thought going through her head during this mad dash was that she had to save Zim – her life would be meaningless without him. That was all she could think of as she placed herself between Zim and the sergeant… just as he opened fire.

Zim spun around at the sound of gunfire, and froze at the sight of Jana dropping to her knees, green Irken blood spilling out of several parts of her chest and abdomen. Time seemed to slow down as the female completely collapsed into a heap on the ground, her own blood pooling around her. Seconds later – which felt like an eternity – Zim tore his gaze away from his fallen servant and looked at the human responsible, who looked surprised at the sudden turn of events.

"_Kisgaree!_" Zim screamed, before unleashing the full fury of his offensive powers.

The sergeant screamed as his body burst into flames and was sent flying backwards. Dib and the agent jumped out of the way as the sergeant slammed into the jeep so hard it flipped over; shortly after, that jeep – and all the others the soldiers had arrived in – exploded, sending debris flying all over the Membrane front yard. Dib, the agent, and the remaining soldiers were miraculously unharmed by any of the debris, but they were all temporarily blinded by the explosions and resulting smoke. By the time any of them got their sight back, Zim was gone, and all that was left of Jana was a pool of blood.

"Uh, where'd they go?" the agent asked, looking around as if he expected either of the Irkens to suddenly appear.

"Zim ran off when we were distracted," Dib said while clutching his once-again bleeding shoulder, "He must have grabbed Jana when he did."

"Why? I mean, she _was_ dead, wasn't she?"

Dib didn't reply. He knew that the other SEN member wouldn't like the answer – Irkens didn't die that easily.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, A Few Minutes Later_

GIR and Minimoose were sitting on the couch, watching the live news reports of the GESS invasion in the city. All the footage being shown was from drones and helicopters – no human reporter was stupid enough to go anywhere near the actual battle.

"I love this show," GIR droned, making Minimoose roll his eyes (which had an interesting effect in his case, what with being cock-eyed and all).

The front door suddenly burst inward off its hinges, slamming into the opposite wall as Zim entered the house, carrying Jana's body bridal style. GIR noticed the blood on Jana's torso and frowned.

"Aw, Jana's got an owie," the oblivious robot said.

"Yes, GIR, she does," Zim said, his voice oddly strained, "Now move."

Both mechanical servants quickly hopped off of the couch as Zim approached and gently lowered Jana onto the soft cushions. Once Jana was safely lying down, Zim turned his attention to the ceiling.

"Computer, seal the base. Maximum security procedures," he ordered, "And run a medical diagnostic on Jana – I want to know why her PAK hasn't healed her yet."

The computer didn't respond, but it had obviously heard the order; a metal panel slammed shut in the open doorway, and several more did likewise in all of the windows. Zim didn't notice, as his attention never once left Jana while the computer scanned her.

"Master," the computer spoke up at last, "Jana's PAK is still functional and undamaged. However, several bullets are lodged in her squeedly-spooch and heart; they will need to be removed before the PAK can begin healing the damage."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Zim snapped, "Remove them."

Several slender mechanical arms, equipped with various tools, emerged from the ceiling and got to work on removing the lead slugs from Jana's body. Watching the computer work, Zim collapsed into a chair with a sigh, feeling an immense weight lift off of his chest. He'd never admit it, but until the computer had said that Jana would be all right, he'd been scared; scared that she would die, that he'd never be able to talk to her again, that he'd never be able to apologize for blaming the failure of his initial coup plot on her…

Zim's train of thought was derailed when he felt something moving down his cheek. Touching it, he was rather surprised when his fingers came back wet.

'Am I _crying?_' he thought. He'd been upset when he thought that Jana was going die, but he didn't care to the point that he would do something as emotional as _crying_… did he?

Then again, he'd felt a connection of some sort with Jana ever since they had met, and as much as he hated to say that the computer was right, he _was_ attracted to her, at least on a physical level. But the thought that his feelings went deeper than that…

As soon as Jana was awake, the two of them were going to have a talk; it was time to clear the air between them once and for all.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: Hope that the ending doesn't seem too sudden, but I wanted to get this done, and I figured it'd build up to the interaction between Zim and Jana next chapter. And speaking of the next chapter, I think that will be the last one, followed by the epilogue. We'll see what happens.**

**Next chapter: The tide is turned against Zim, who makes a drastic decision concerning his plans.**

**Read and review!**


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry for the late update (again), but I had finals to take, so between the studying and the actual tests, I didn't have a lot of time to write.**

**Anyway, here we go, the last chapter of "Evolution", excluding the epilogue. Now we get to see just how bad I am at romance – as we reach a new stage of the Zim/Jana fluff – and see if I can avoid a Dues Ex Machina with ending the GESS threat. Let's see what I can do, shall we?**

**Read on!**

**Disclaimer: Jana and the GESS belong to me. Everything else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_Membrane Yard, Same Time_

Dib and the SEN agent – whose codename was Agent Yeti, apparently – stood over the charred corpse of the alpha-GESS, examining it the best they could with only their bare eyes and hands. Meanwhile, reinforcements had arrived in the form of more army soldiers, who were gathering up their dead comrades and giving the Swollen Eyeball members a wide berth.

"You really should get that looked at," Agent Yeti commented, gesturing to Dib's bleeding shoulder.

"I've had worse," Dib said without taking his eyes off the GESS, thinking of the burn wound on his chest, "Besides, we need to see if the GESS have some kind of flaw we can use to beat them. No offense, but those energy weapons of yours are pretty useless."

"None taken," Yeti replied with a shrug, "I'm not the one who made them… though you might want to be careful what you say about them around Agent Nessie. That guy's got an ego the size of Texas when it comes to his inventions."

Dib considered making a comment about how Zim's ego was even bigger, but decided that now wasn't the time for idle chat. Continuing to examine the dead alpha, he frowned as he noticed the odd shape of its ears. Rummaging around in a coat pocket, he pulled out a pen and used it to stretch out one ear, which had shriveled up when it had burnt. With the ear back in more-or-less its usual position, Dib now saw why it was shaped so oddly – it was the ear of a bat.

"Echolocation," Dib muttered, remembering what Zim had said earlier.

"What?" Yeti asked.

"Zim said that when he created these things he gave them some bat DNA so that they could use echolocation," Dib explained, "It looks like that particular trait manifested itself through giving them the ears of a bat. Actually, it probably altered their vocal cords too, but the _ears_ are the important part."

Yeti looked at the ear Dib had been examining, then turned to the younger SEN agent and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay… you've lost me on this, Mothman," he said.

Dib sighed, before gesturing at the ear and explaining.

"Look, in order to actually pick up on the high-pitched sound waves that they use for echolocation and interpret them, they must have a heightened sense of hearing. Meaning, if we can find the right decibel range, we can overwhelm the GESS audibly."

"Wait. You're saying that we have to fight these things with _sound_?"

"Not _fight,_ exactly," Dib said with a shrug, being careful not to aggravate his wounded shoulder, "But we might be able to disorient them enough that we stand a fighting chance against them."

Agent Yeti was silent for a few moments as he considered, before finally sighing.

"I guess we don't really have too many other viable options, do we?"

"No, not really," Dib said grimly, before another thought came to him.

"Uh... I don't suppose the Network's got any super-advanced sonic equipment lying around we can use, does it?"

"No," Yeti admitted, before grinning, "But I think I know how we can improvise."

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, A While Later_

As Jana slowly regained consciousness, she became aware of the fact that she was lying on something soft and comfortable. This was slightly confusing, as the last thing she remembered was being in front of Dib's house, fighting him and several human soldiers, and then jumping in front of one soldier who had been about to shoot Zim from behind…

She winced as the phantom pain of being shot coursed through her body. She also began coughing a bit harshly, as her fully repaired squeedly-spooch registered that its respiratory section was filled with blood and began ejecting it. Jana was left with the taste of nickel in her mouth as she instinctively leaned over and spat out her own body fluids, before collapsing back into what she now realized was a couch.

"So I take it you're awake now?"

Jana blinked the last fuzziness of unconsciousness out of her eyes, and found that she was back in the base, and that Zim was standing over her – and he was wiping away some of the blood she had just spat out onto his shirt. Jana flinched slightly as she noticed that, and quickly began crawling into a sitting position.

"Master, I-" she began, but Zim cut her off with a raised hand. He then placed that hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back down.

"Lie down," he ordered softly, "Your PAK may have mostly repaired your wounds, but it is still working on the minor damage, not to mention replacing the blood you lost. So just relax for a few minutes and let it do its work."

Jana merely nodded and lay down. There was an uncomfortable silence for several minutes as Jana merely lay there, and Zim sat down in a chair he'd pulled over next to the couch, shifting uncomfortably as both Irkens intentionally avoided eye contact.

Finally unable to bare the silence anymore, Zim jumped back to his feet.

"Why?" he asked.

Jana blinked in surprise and turned to look at him.

"Why what?" she asked.

"Why did you jump in front of that human's weapon? Why did you almost get yourself killed?"

The assassin frowned and looked away.

"He was targeting your PAK, master. And you were so distracted by the other soldiers that you wouldn't have seen him until too late. It's my duty to protect you, so I did."

"By using yourself as a meat shield?" Zim asked with an eye narrowed in confusion.

Jana's face flushed.

"It was an instinct," she muttered, "And besides… I've already failed you once this day. I couldn't live with myself if another failure cost you your life."

Zim frowned at that, which only grew when he noticed fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. Reaching out, he gently wiped the tears away, noticing that Jana shivered at his touch.

"If you're talking about the recording Dib used to expose my plans to Gor…"

Zim paused for several seconds, then swallowed his pride with a sigh and continued.

"It wasn't your fault."

Jana looked like she wanted to argue with that, but Zim continued before she could.

"I know Dib better than anyone; I should have known that he would have a backup of anything he could use against me. But I let my ego get the best of me, and I assumed that nothing could stop us – and while I still believe that to be true in the long run, I was wrong this time. So, it was _my_ fault, not yours. So don't blame yourself; and don't you _ever_ do something that stupid again. Understood?"

"Yes, milord," Jana said with a nod.

Another silence – a more comfortable one than before – fell over the two of them. For several minutes, they simply stared at each other, his red orbs into her green ones, both of them content to simply enjoy the moment and let their minds wander.

'_**I love you…**_'

Zim jumped back as if a live power cable had just shocked him, and judging by the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look Jana was sporting, she also realized what she had just been caught thinking.

"Wh-what was that?" Zim asked, unable to stop himself from stammering.

"Oh, uh, um, t-that, uh, that was, um…" Jana seemed to have lost her ability to form coherent sentences as her face turned a _much_ darker shade of green, and she began looking anywhere but at Zim.

"Jana," Zim said slowly, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, "Look at me."

Jana hesitantly obeyed, turning to look at Zim face, but avoiding looking him in the eyes.

"Tell me… tell me _exactly_ how you feel about me," Zim ordered, resisting the urge to telekinetically force Jana to make eye contact.

She was silent for what felt like a lifetime, before finally answering.

"I love you, master… and I think I always have."

Jana's voice was barely above a whisper, but it was carrying more emotion than Zim had ever heard her use before. And the odd thing was, it was causing Zim's own emotions to start bubbling up as well; at least, if that's what the heat rising in his face and the knotting feeling in the digestive section of his squeedly-spooch meant.

"I think it started when I first entered the military," Jana continued, oblivious to how Zim's emotions were wrecking havoc on him, "One day, you – the future you, anyway – came to inspect all the new trainees. You didn't even notice me, of course; after all, I was just one soldier among hundreds in my training batch, why would you have noticed me? But I, on the other hand, was struck by your sheer majesty, by the power your form seemed to generate… I think that's when I fell in love with you."

Jana gave a mirthless laugh before continuing, "You know, that was the day I dedicated myself to becoming a Shadow – I figured that if I became one of the few to reach that rank, you'd actually notice me. And hopefully, one day, you'd eventually see that my loyalty was born of _love_, not duty… as you can probably figure out, that never happened, since if it had you wouldn't have sent me back in time and away from you.

"And do you want to know what the most pathetic thing is? For a little while, I actually deluded myself into thinking that I could win your love in this time period, before you had the pressures of running the Empire holding all of your attention. But I understand now; I am just your servant, and that's all I'll ever be. I suppose I'll just have to accept that, and-"

"Jana," Zim suddenly spoke up, his voice carrying a slightly harsh tone.

"Y-Yes, milord?" Jana asked, somehow just knowing that she wouldn't like what came next.

"Stop talking," Zim said, in a much softer tone, before suddenly leaning forward and pressing his lips against hers.

Jana's eyes went wider than what was normal for a Irken, and then they practically rolled up into her head as she returned the kiss and went into a state of what she could only describe as pure bliss.

Neither Irken knew how long the moment lasted, but they would later agree that it wasn't nearly long enough. Finally, they parted for breath, both of them flushed and bearing small grins.

"Master," Jana breathed out, "D-Does this mean…?"

"I think so," Zim muttered, surprising himself with how bashful he suddenly sounded, "I admit… despite the fact that Zim is superior in most things… I don't have any experience in love. But I know that I've felt a connection of some kind with you ever since we met, and I know that you're the only person who has ever been truly loyal to me, not because of programming, but because you choose to be. And I also know that when that soldier wounded you – when I thought you were going to die – that it felt like my heart was ripped out. I don't ever want to loose you, Jana; I want you to be with me forever, and I would really like it if… if you would be by my side when I take my rightful place as ruler of the Empire."

Jana smiled, even as tears of happiness formed in her eyes.

"I'd like that too, master."

Zim grinned as he reached over and caressed her cheek.

"Please, just call me 'Zim'," he said, leaning in for another kiss, which was eagerly returned.

A sudden kazoo-like musical note from the ceiling interrupted this tender moment, however. Startled, the new couple jumped, and looked up at the ceiling as confetti and streamers exploded from hidden panels, and a banner that read "**CONGRAGULATIONS!**" unfurled from nowhere. This resulted in narrowed eyes and raised antennae from the Irken audience.

"Computer," Zim said as he pulled a streamer off of his shoulder, "Was that supposed to be funny?"

"Yes," the computer said bluntly, "Partially because it's nice to see you two _finally_ admit your feelings for each other-"

Both Irkens blushed at that comment.

"-But mostly because I figured it might soften the blow of the news I have."

"What news?" Jana asked.

In response, the computer turned on the TV and switched it over to one of the news channels covering the GESS invasion.

"This footage was aired several minutes ago," the computer explained.

The entire neighborhood was a warzone; most of the buildings had been broken into by the creatures themselves, or been damaged by wild weapons fire – some were even burning, their flames spreading to their surroundings and adding to the almost apocalyptic view of the scene. Not to mention the GESS themselves, who were feeding on the dead (or mostly dead) bodies of enemy soldiers and civilians who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, the gore feast was soon interrupted when several vehicles – some military, and some civilian ones marked with the SEN logo – arrived on the scene. The GESS out in the open immediately began charging towards the new targets; the soldiers opened fire on them, distracting them long enough for the SEN scientists to pull out what appeared to several sorts of stereo equipment crudely attached to stadium speakers. Just as the GESS were about to reach the soldiers, the equipment suddenly activated with a high-pitched screech that soon changed into a barely-audible tone; however, while it may have been almost inaudible to humans, it broke several nearby windows by vibrating the building frames.

And the GESS, with their sensitive hearing, were vulnerable as well. As the sound continued, the GESS all screamed in pain. Most fell to their knees and clutched their ears, while some collapsed altogether and went into spasms on the ground, their ears beginning to bleed, as the sensitive audio organs within were ripped apart.

The soldiers took full advantage of the situation, firing everything they had at the prone forms of the genetically engineered monsters. Some might point out that this was an unfair move on the humans' part, but considering how many advantages the GESS had over their opponents already, no one was likely to start a debate over it.

The image on the screen froze as the computer commented, "You don't really need to see the rest… it just goes downhill for us from there."

Zim's eye twitched as his hands clenched, as he most likely pretended they were wrapped around Dib's throat. The air around the TV began shimmering, and Jana quickly jumped behind the couch just before the set exploded. When she got back up, she found Zim angrily pacing the floor, his healing ability already dealing with the burns and cuts he'd gotten from the exploding television.

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

Zim glanced up from his pacing to look at her, then grumbled under his breath for a few moments before answering.

"I can only assume that that accursed _kisgaree_ Dib had something to do with this. Which means he's probably also convinced the human military to come deal with us. So, as much I hate to say this, we only have one choice… we have to initiate Omega Protocol."

Jana gaped. "You're ordering the evacuation of the base? A retreat?"

"Zim does not retreat!" the Invader snarled, but calmed down when he saw Jana flinch at his tone.

"I am not _retreating,_" he restated calmly, "This is merely a tactical fallback. This miserable mud ball of a planet is no longer safe to use as a base for my plans, so we will find someplace safer and more suitable to rebuild and start again. Then, after we have taken the Empire for ourselves, we will come back and turn this world into a cinder. Understand?"

Jana clasped a fist to her shoulder in salute. "Yes, my Tallest."

"Good," Zim said with a grin, "Now, start teleporting everything up to the space station. I'll join you once I've pulled GIR and Minimoose away from whatever idiotic activity they're up to."

Jana nodded and headed towards the elevator, while Zim turned his attention to the ceiling.

"And computer," he added, "Begin transferring all files to the station as well; I don't want to risk leaving anything behind for the humans to find. And prioritize the research on the GESS."

"Why?" the computer asked, "In case you didn't notice, sir, they failed in the end."

"True," Zim admitted, "But only because of one tiny flaw. With some modifications, they will be perfect; besides, we'll need soldiers in order to conquer the Empire. Now do it."

With that said, Zim headed for the elevator himself. It was time to end this chapter of his life, and move on to a _much_ more pleasant one.

XXXXXXX

_Cul-De-Sac Outside Zim's Base, Half An Hour Later_

As the sun began to set, Army jeeps and troop transports screeched into the cul-de-sac, soldiers quickly unloading and getting into squad formation. They then began charging towards the deformed green house that – according to the information they'd been given – was the base of the people responsible for the slaughter that had occurred that day.

Each and every soldier had the sole intention of personally killing the masterminds of the greatest disaster this city had ever seen. Unfortunately for those in the front ranks, however, they never got the chance, as the security gnomes on Zim's front lawn opened fired with the laser cannons in their eyes at full strength. The front lines were vaporized instantly, and before the other soldiers had a chance to even register this, the gnomes switched into their insectoid forms and launched at them.

The cul-de-sac was soon filled with shouts, screams and explosions as the soldiers began fighting for their lives against the alien drones.

XXXXXXX

_Zim's Base, Zim's Bedroom, Same Time_

Zim slowly shifted through the contents of the trunk holding his mementos. In addition to the now-undersized ceremonial battle armor he'd received upon graduating from Invader training on Devastis, he also had the battle gauntlets from his special training on Hobo 13 (plus the drill sergeant's discarded dog tags, which he'd kept as a souvenir), his old scientist's garb from his time at Research Station Nine, and a few pictures of Irk he'd taken during the rare occasions he'd been on the surface.

After making sure that he still had each object, Zim securely locked the chest and heaved it up, his enhanced strength making it child's play to carry the heavy object. He then walked out of the bedroom with it towards the main control room, where Jana and Minimoose were looking at one of the monitors. Placing the trunk on the floor, Zim then walked over to his… servant? Girlfriend? Mate? What was she now exactly?

'We'll work that out later,' he thought to himself, before asking, "How is the evacuation proceeding?"

"We're almost done sir," the assassin replied, "In fact, we'll be completely finished just as soon as that idiot is done."

Zim followed Jana's pointing finger to the screen, which was showing GIR using a plunger to try and push the Voot Runner – which had apparently been stuffed full of rubber pigs and tacos – into one of the teleportation pods. Zim blinked in surprise, then narrowed one eye in confusion.

"Why is he using a plunger?"

"I'm still trying to figure out how he got the Voot down there," Jana said, cocking her head to one side.

Zim sighed, and then turned to Minimoose.

"Minimoose, go help him, then head up to the station. And take my trunk with you."

"Squeak!" Minimoose responded, launching several cables from his antlers, which wrapped around the trunk and lifted it into the air. The purple super weapon then floated out of the room, heading down the hall to help his moronic counterpart.

The two Irkens then turned their attention to another monitor, which showed the battle raging outside the base. A rocket-propelled grenade slammed into one of the security drones, blowing it apart and sending debris flying into several other drones and damaging them.

"The drones won't hold against the humans much longer, master," the computer said, "Since the evacuation is nearly complete and all files have been uploaded, I would advise to enact the final stage of Omega Protocol."

"Point taken, computer," Zim said, walking over to the main console. He typed in a long sequence, and then connected a PAK cable to the console to confirm his identity. He then turned away from the console and walked back to Jana.

"Shall we take our leave then, my dear?" he asked, extending a hand.

Jana blushed, though whether it was from being called "my dear" or from being offered his hand was hard to tell. She reached out and took Zim's hand, enjoying the warm feeling that accompanied the physical contact. The two then quickly walked out of the room, hand-in-hand, down the hall towards the teleporters. Meanwhile, on the main computer screen, a large yellow circle appeared. At the top of the circle a thin triangular strip – which extended down to the center of the circle – suddenly began flashing red, and after a few seconds stayed that color, only for the section next to it to begin flashing red as well.

Anyone viewing this would have been able to identify it immediately – it was a countdown.

XXXXXXX

_Cul-De-Sac Outside Zim's Base, A Few Minutes Later_

An SEN car pulled up alongside the army vehicles, and Dib hopped out the second it stopped moving, being careful not to upset the sling his shoulder was now being held in. Agent Yeti hopped out after him, putting away a communicator as he did so.

"Agent Darkbooty wants you to come back in to headquarters and let the soldiers handle this," he said.

"They don't know what they're getting into," Dib said, watching the soldiers clear away the remains of the drones and start using a blowtorch on the steel panel in the doorway, "So I'll let them 'handle it', but I'm going to be close by in case anything happens."

"If you say so," Yeti said with a shrug, deciding not to point out that Dib wouldn't be of much use with only one good arm.

At that moment, the soldiers managed to open a hole in the door panel and quickly swarmed into the base. Dib gave them a few minutes head start, then began heading towards the house himself – only to nearly fall over as the ground suddenly shook.

"What the-" Yeti began to say, before Zim's house suddenly exploded.

The force of the initial explosion blew the metal panels out of the door and the windows, and ripped open a hole in the roof before secondary shockwaves vaporized the walls of the house and sent debris flying. The fireball expanded outwards, consuming the surrounding houses and their unfortunate occupants and knocking Dib and Yeti on their backs. Both agents tried to crawl towards the cover of one of the cars, just when the ground heaved, cracked, and caved in, caused by the underground labs exploding as well.

For several long minutes after the explosion, the only sounds were those of the flames and the debris falling from the sky… including pieces of the unfortunate soldiers that had entered the base just prior to its destruction. Finally, Dib and Yeti pulled themselves to their feet and stared in horror at the sight before them.

"My God," Yeti gasped, "He blew himself up."

Dib didn't say anything. He didn't have any proof beyond a gut feeling, but he _knew_ that Zim wasn't in the base when it blew up. Zim didn't give up that easily.

Turning his gaze upwards, Dib gazed at the appearing stars; and somewhere up there, beyond the view of his bare eyes, there was a sudden flash of light as Zim's space station entered hyperspace, carrying him and his minions to some distant corner of the galaxy to start their plans anew.

Zim's reign of terror wasn't over… it was just beginning.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: And there's the last chapter, which once again shows why I shouldn't write romance fics. I also think the way I came up with to beat the GESS is pretty lame, but it's all I could think of short of nuking the city.**

**Anyway, all that's left now is the epilogue, which I swear will be up by Christmas. You have my word on that.**

**Read and review!**


	15. Epilogue

**A/N: T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring… except me, as I work hard to meet my self-imposed deadline for posting this epilogue. So, butchery of classic Yuletide poems aside, I present you with the end of "Evolution of Evil".**

**Oh, and on a side note that I forgot to mention last chapter, congrats to JoeMerl for correctly figuring out where I was going with the end of this story/the next part of the trilogy.**

**Disclaimer: I own Jana and Agent Yeti. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.**

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

_Membrane Household, Two Weeks Later_

Dib slowly flexed his arm; he had finally gotten it out of the sling, but his shoulder was still sore, and was sporting the latest addition to his scar collection.

"At least Jana didn't give me this one," he muttered with a sarcastic chuckle as he settled on the couch and flicked on the television.

As had been common for the past several weeks since the GESS invasion, all the news stations were talking about was either the new space defense programs being worked on jointly by the military and NASAPLACE to prevent any other aliens from attacking, or the few bits and pieces of alien technology that the SEN had managed to retrieve from the remains of Zim's base.

Dib's eye always twitched whenever any variation of that story ran. There hadn't _been_ any "remains" of the base; the self-destruct had completely obliterated everything, right down to the tunnel the GESS had used to enter the city. The only Irken technology that had been salvaged was the escape pod from Zim's space station and the ruins of Tak's ship, and the only reason the SEN had those was because Dib had handed them over.

But according to Agent Yeti, Darkbooty and the other senior agents had decided that it would be better for public morale if an organization with connections to the government were seen handling all of the alien technology, rather than a lone minor who was known as the local wacko.

Speaking of which, the one bright side of this whole thing was that no one thought he was crazy anymore. Once it had been declared safe for Skool to be back in attendance, Dib had noticed that all the students who had once called him crazy were now looking at him with a newfound respect (except Torque, who had mysteriously disappeared and was now presumed dead).

Even his father was now stubbornly admitting that the GESS hadn't been a mass hallucination, and that his "poor, insane son" was actually right the whole time. And Gaz… well, Gaz was Gaz. What more could be said there?

However, despite all of this, Dib wasn't satisfied. Sure, people didn't think he was insane anymore and were more open to the paranormal – if only slightly – but that didn't comfort him any. Zim and Jana were still out there somewhere, plotting to take over the Irken Empire… and if they succeeded, how long would it be before they came back to Earth to finish what they started? Whatever happened, Dib wouldn't rest until he was sure the threat those two presented to his planet was neutralized.

'Well there's always that space program,' he thought, 'If they're serious about going into space using reverse-engineered tech, that's my best shot to get out there and find Zim. Shouldn't be too hard to talk Darkbooty into letting me in on that; the Network owes me that much…'

As Dib let his train of thought run its course, he knew one thing for sure. He was going to see this through to the end, no matter what that end was, or where it would ultimately take him.

XXXXXXX

_Planet Vort, Prison Facility 724-DJ5, Same Day_

Prisoner 777 stifled a bored yawn with one hand while his other one was waving a paddleball in the air. He'd had nothing to do lately; the Irkens hadn't required his "assistance" on any projects, and as for his less-than-legal side projects, he hadn't had any requests from Zim since he'd supplied him with that Electronic Security Field a couple of months earlier.

And from what he heard, he wouldn't be getting any more orders from Zim anytime soon. According to what he'd overheard the guards gossiping about, Zim had apparently been caught planning a coup against the Tallest, and had even killed Third Tallest Gor in the process… although, that bit was just speculation and rumor at this point. Gor's death hadn't been confirmed yet, but no one had heard from him since Zim's plans were exposed, so everyone just assumed he was dead.

In any case, 777 doubted he'd be hearing from Zim again, and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to help him. Before, whenever he handed over his inventions to the defective Invader, he could pass off his attempts at stirring up a little anarchy as aiding a loyal servant of the Empire. Now, however, he could be accused of treason – not that he was loyal to the Irkens to begin with, but still – and the punishment for treason was… rather unpleasant. And since 777 was fond of living, he wasn't going to take that kind of risk.

The Vortian's train of thought was cut off when there was a sudden commotion outside his cell. Jumping in surprise, he completely forgot about the paddleball he was holding, thus allowing the ball to overshoot the paddle and hit 777 in his eye.

"Ouch! _Scmet la tidda!_" he cursed, dropping the paddle and rubbing at his eye to relieve the pain.

While he was doing that, he heard the cell doors open and someone walk through. When his eyesight cleared, he found that a figure wearing a black cloak was now standing just a few feet away from him, its face hidden from sight by a hood. Behind the figure, in the doorway, 777 could make out the prone forms of the Irkens who had been guarding him… unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell.

The figure began walking towards him, and he quickly backed away, only to bump into the computer console that the Irkens had so "generously" equipped his cell with.

"Prisoner 777, I presume?" the figure asked, in a surprisingly feminine voice.

"Uh… yeah," he responded nervously, "Can I help you with some-UGH!"

He was cut off as the figure grabbed him by the throat and pulled him close; and, as he tried not to choke, he found himself looking into a pair of green Irken eyes.

Jana grinned evilly as the captive Vortian squirmed in her grip, making sure to bare as many of her teeth in the grin as she could. Upon making sure that the prisoner was focusing surely on her, she spoke.

"Lord Zim would like a word with you…"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: And that is that. Sorry it took until the latter half of the holiday to get up, but for some reason I had trouble working on Dib's scene.**

**Well, what do you all think? Have I properly set things up for the final part of this trilogy? In any case, I'm sure you'll all be on the lookout for Part 3, which has the working title of "Galactic Armageddon"… I really need to come up with a better title.**

**I'll probably have the first chapter out sometime next month. But first, I think I'll work on a few side projects I've been planning for a while.**

**Read and review! And Merry Christmas!**


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